


The Ants in Problematic Paradoxes

by rimacchi



Category: Persona 4, Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Akechi Goro Lives, Akira's just really fucked up right now and needs some help, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Attempt at Humor, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Grief/Mourning, How Do I Tag, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Major Character Injury, Murder Mystery, Post-Canon, Yu is tired and needs a break
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-04-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:54:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 34,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23509480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rimacchi/pseuds/rimacchi
Summary: It has been years; The Phantom Thieves are reduced to an urban legend and Akira only wishes to graduate from university without Joker’s mask but when a series of murders starts to terrorize the city with the culprit taunting the ever elusive thieves, Akira finds himself once again in the Velvet Room realizing two things: there’s a dead man haunting him and he wants out of whatever bullshit that’s happening.At the same time, Yu Narukami comes back to the bustling metropolis under a friend’s request to catch a killer that’s pushing him to uncover the truth behind the incidents that occurred in Christmas Eve, 2016. He’s sure that everything would be easier if Akira stops speaking in riddles.
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist, Hanamura Yosuke/Narukami Yu, Kitagawa Yusuke/Sakura Futaba
Comments: 37
Kudos: 233





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I'm in quarantine right now so I really managed to write this thing that I've had in my head ever since the end of the p5 series. This doesn't include the royal and scramble storylines but the only exception would be Akechi's confidant.
> 
> As much as I loved the game, I was still bitter in some parts of the story especially with how they handled the interrogation (I refuse to believe that it never gave Akira any trauma) and Akechi's role as a character in general so I tweaked some scenes a bit to match what's happening in this fic which takes place years after the original game. 
> 
> For the names, yes, I am aware that the canon name is Amamiya Ren but I've been into p5 even before they decided on it so you could say that I got attached to Akira Kurusu so yes, I'm using the manga name because I seem more comfortable using it. Perhaps the only canon name I'll be using would be Yu's hahaha.
> 
> Anyways! Hope you enjoy this fic :>
> 
> **Trigger warning for blood**

Tokyo will always be Tokyo, Akira thinks when he finds himself squished and sandwiched in the crowd as he tries his best to actually get out of the train without cutting off a limb or two. He’s pretty sure that he’ll always look at the city the same way with all its towering skyscrapers and blinding lights like the very first moment he stepped on its asphalt roads as a labeled criminal years ago. 

Back then, he was living in Leblanc’s attic --- mind filled with pulsating thoughts and ears full of ill rumors. Now, he’s not really living in an attic per se but the space he shares with Ryuji near their university might as well be called one. It made him feel even more claustrophobic than he did before but at least his brain’s filled with whatever shit the professors are stacking and his ears are --- thankfully --- not too full of rumors.

But really, Akira realizes that he really shouldn’t leave his consciousness on a train back to memory lane when he still needs to get off the damn thing in reality with the luggage sagging down his back.

It has been a good three hours. The bullet train might be fast but never fast enough to make Akira forget how much of a country boy he was before the whole accusation of assault. He finds his mother’s voice ringing in his head and he shakes it off, focusing on the ache on his shoulder brought by his backpack straps.

He shouldn’t have gone home.

That’s the worse thought he has had all day.

But what could have he done? His mother was sick and was wasting her days around in the hospital --- at least that’s what he heard from his dad --- but the moment he stepped into the room, he was greeted by a cold gaze that successfully pierced through his heart; enough to make him bleed inside. 

He was not welcome and he didn’t need to ask why.

At times like this, he misses Morgana. The cat never failed to talk to him during a long train ride or distract him from the ill thoughts that linger around his parents. Time changes things, Akira realizes. Morgana is no longer in his bag and the high pitched voice reminding him to sleep has gone away once he decided to move into another apartment near the university. It wasn’t really his fault that the landlord was allergic to cats and that was the sole reason as to why Morgana didn’t whine too much about getting left behind in Leblanc. Well, maybe not the sole reason. After all, he still has Futaba who’s currently spending too much time with Kosei High School’s resources and Yusuke visits as often as he does.

**Ryuji**  
hey dude still on the train???

  
A message appears on his phone and not a second later, another one comes.

**Ryuji**  
still up for that ramen shop???

**Akira**  
yeah of course. where is it again?

**Ryuji**  
i’ll pick u up and well look for it together. still suck at maps apparently. tokyo station right?

**Akira**  
i’ll wait in the coffee stalls

**Ryuji**  
dont judge the coffee too much. no fighting with baristas

**Akira**  
no promises on the first part bc technically it was you who fought with a barista

**Ryuji**  
suddenly I cant read

**Akira**  
and you don’t know how to use punctuation now too apparently

**Ryuji**  
shut it kurusu.

  
He chuckles at Ryuji’s reply and keeps his phone before maneuvering himself to the coffee shops outside of the station. It’s small, full of people and the decor seemed too much with its pastel phonographs and classical music. Establishments are trying too hard to be Tumblr-esque, Akira thinks. If Yusuke were here then he would certainly comment on the chaotic color scheme and would probably vocally express his worries as to why the decorator thought that matching neon green to pastel blue was a good idea.

Akira orders one espresso and takes a seat outside. It wasn’t that interesting, in all honesty. Akira thinks that the coffee isn’t even made from pure beans at all and he shakes his head slightly with a smirk painted on his face when he hears Sojiro in his head yelling about the coffee in his hand being the most blasphemous thing to the fresh coffee gods or whatever. He used to make coffee in Leblanc everyday, of course he’d know his coffee formulas.

“Excuse me,” Amidst the noise and the Beethoven sonata coming from the speakers, Akira hears a voice accompanied by a light tap on his shoulder. A man with silver hair stands tall in front of him, a cup of coffee in hand, his glasses askew and his brown trench coat worn out. “Is it okay if I sit next to you?” He continues with a smile, catching another glimpse at the tables behind him before saying: “There doesn’t seem to be any free space left and I’m supposed to be picked up here.”

Akira blinks and scans the guy again before he goes _Whoa, how tall does this guy go?_ Before he realizes that he still has to reply. “Yeah,” He says. “Yeah sure, take a seat.”

The man nods and moves to sit with an audible thank you. His voice sounds kind --- calm.

“Not from here?” Akira asks and the stranger seemed to look at him closely first, as if surprised that he was starting a conversation. Well, he can’t really help it; he met his confidants through talking so speaking to strangers even without the whole Phantom Thieves heists is a hard habit to break.

“Yeah,” The guy chuckles lightly. “How’d you know?”

Akira points to the big stroller below the table. “It’s either you’re coming home from abroad, visiting or trafficking someone in there.”

“If you tap it twice, the person inside taps back.” The man says with a chuckle.

Akira raises a brow and chuckles back, knocking on the metal two times with only silence responding. “Oh God, the dude’s dead.” He says in fake horror along with the most dramatic gasp he could muster. “May wanna check on that?”

The man laughs this time, his hand moving to cover his mouth. 

“I’m quite used to carrying big strollers. I travel a lot.” He takes a sip at his coffee. “But I’m not really fond of the whole buzzing metropolis anymore. Kind of reduced as a country guy.”

Country guy, eh. Well, Akira has a thing or two that he could say.

“Really? Where oh where is this countryside?” If this man says Osaka or Nagoya then Akira’s going to firmly dump his coffee over his silver head. Exaggerating but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t do it in his mind instead.

“Inaba. People don’t really know it.” 

Oh thank God.

“No, no.” Akira waves a hand in front of him, dismissing the second statement. “I’ve been to Inaba before. I used to live there as a child before moving to another town. Home’s one stop farther from it.”

Akira doesn’t really know what he just said but this guy’s eyes suddenly glow, much like how Yusuke’s do at the sight of proper food.

“Is that so? I’m glad. There’s nothing really extravagant to see there so I’m happy someone knows it.”

“Oh but what I miss about Inaba is Junes.” Akira muses out loud, his mind dwelling on a memory of him just running down the aisles of the department stores as his father chased him. “Is it still there?”

“Standing strong.” The stranger laughs fondly and then scans Akira’s face. “Narukami.”

“Hm?”

“Narukami. That’s my name. Narukami Yu.” He extends an arm across the table and for a short while, Akira feels as if he’s making another confidant again and for a second he expected Justine’s voice to reverberate in his skull. 

He takes the hand offered to him and shakes it. “Kurusu Akira. It’s nice to meet you, Narukami-san.”

When he lets go, there’s a wave of emotion hitting him. He looks at Narukami’s pleasant features and then back to the coffee he has, his eyes then wander to the fullness of the place with people living in their busy lives --- he suddenly misses everything. Meeting new people, learning new things, the heists and the thrills the palaces brought. He feels a ghost knife on his hands and a trigger on his fingers. Then and there, he feels the weight of the mask he used to wear and the heat of the flames that would cover him with Arsene rising from within him.

And he hears gunshots echoing in his ears, sending an ache to his temple.

He remembers a needle to his arm and a foot to his chest with the cold air and heated pain spreading throughout his skin, he remembers blood and screams, a metal door closing, a man with a favor and a missing signal. He remembers the eerie quiet that came after and then ---

“So what brings you to Tokyo?” Narukami breaks the chain of thoughts and the emotion leaves.

“Oh, uh, school. For the most part. I’m taking political science in university. I just visited home because of some family issues.” Akira replies, shaking the ache that started to form in his head. “You?”

“Work, apparently.” He says. “I’m usually based in Inaba but a friend of mine needs some help so I came here to do so.”

“Is it Junes related?” Akira chuckles. There’s really nothing else he could think about when it comes to Inaba.

“No, not really and unfortunately. It’s a case.”

Sae comes into mind.

“You’re a lawyer? Prosecutor?”

“Private investigator.” Narukami corrects. “Though I get why you’d say that.”

Akira raises a brow. “Oh, so what case might have rocked on Tokyo’s grounds that it needed outside contacts for it to be solved? The cops getting sloppy?” If they’re still drugging and beating up detainees then there’s probably no way they’d be sloppy.

“Well, not finding out until my friend gets here.” Narukami replies and takes another sip of his coffee before adjusting his glasses. “But I got to say that Tokyo has some… stuff going on.” He continues. “I mean, there was this whole Phantom Thieves thing back in 2016.”

Should Akira still be surprised? He went to Hawaii and even some people knew about the infamous Phantom Thieves but then again, it has been years ever since. The whole thing about stealing hearts, grinding palaces and hacking television stations for calling cards feels like an era behind him. Right now, they’ve been reduced to nothing as stories for adults to tell just to scare their children to sleep.

_Behave or I’ll call the Phantom Thieves to steal your heart!_ Or whatever bullshit that is. Some stories even involve them violently ripping out people’s innards for them to repent or them scurrying down the depths of the underground world to deal drugs of some sort.

At this point, he’s curious as to what funky stuff Narukami has heard about them.

“Yeah?” Akira’s trying his best not to let a smirk surface up his expression. “And your stand on them is?”

Narukami is silent for a moment. His finger starts tapping along the rhythm of a Mozart piece on the wooden table and his mouth opens and closes like he’s trying to find the right words for an answer. 

“It really depends on their methods, I think.” He says after a hum. “For the most part, I only heard about them; vigilantes who change corrupted people’s hearts --- it stirred up a lot with the police.”

_More than you can imagine._

“Though I kind of know the feeling.” Narukami continues. “These thieves, whoever they are, they must have felt the need to just do something because the right people wouldn’t move.”

And now it’s Akira’s turn to choose his words in a cloud of confusion. That question has been asked too many times years ago --- _“Do you think the Phantom Thieves are just?”_. The answers were always a yes or a no and the man in front of him chose to place his verdict in between.

“If,” Akira starts, scratching the surface of the wood. “If by some chance, their methods included I don’t know, maybe something supernatural like in the movies or in the Avengers and comics, would you believe it?”

“Of course.” Narukami says without a second of doubt. His gaze is sharp, his smile is still there --- he’s confident in his words that it scares Akira a bit. “I’ve been through weird things in my line of work. At this point I doubt anything would be able to surprise me.”

It would. It would surprise you, Narukami-san.

And just as when he was supposed to reply, a call reaches both of their ears.

“Senpai!” It was distant yet still clearly audible and was enough for their heads to shoot sideways on its direction.

Narukami brightens at the sight of a woman in a deep blue jacket. Her hair in the coolest shade and her mouth slips up to a smile.

“Guess that’s my call.” Narukami says to him. “It was really nice meeting you, Kurusu-san.”

He holds out his hand for another hand shake and Akira’s delighted to shake back. “Same here.”

Narukami stands up, takes his stroller out of the table and tries to make his way around the table after a slight bow to him.

“Make sure to check if the guy’s still breathing in there.” Akira whispers jokingly before bringing the cup closer to his lips. The coffee’s gone cold.

“Will do.” Narukami whispers back and then laughs but his chuckles are then cut off with a flinch when the stroller gets caught up on the table’s leg, bringing Narukami forward with enough force to bump Akira.

There’s a small unexpected yelp that comes out of both their lips and Akira stands up almost immediately when the impact manages the cup of coffee to shake in his hand before the drink spills onto his shirt, staining the white fabric into a dirty brown. The cup slips from his hand and falls to the tiled floor, splitting the cup into two.

“Ah, shit.” He curses under his breath, eyes on the broken glassware.

“Oh, God.” Narukami drops his stroller as well, it falls to the floor with an audible and metallic thud that alerts more staff to their direction. “Oh God, Oh God, Oh God. I’m so sorry!” He frantically searches his pockets and finds a handkerchief and he actually moves to try and wipe the stains on Akira’s shirt.

“No, no! It’s okay, it’s okay!” Akira waves his hands and Narukami stops. “It’s fine.”

Narukami frowns. “But your shirt…”

“It’s just a shirt. It’s coffee, not blood. It’ll come off.” _Oh great Akira, you’re talking as if you know that blood almost doesn’t come off at all._

Narukami doesn’t seem to notice the odd response. Instead, his calm face gets dipped into so much guilt that it makes Akira feel bad.

“Is everything all right?” A young waitress comes to them and gets the gist of the situation, her eyes running through Akira’s ruined shirt and then to the broken cup. “Oh -”

Akira sucks a breath. “I’ll pay for it.”

He kneels down and starts picking up the pieces of glass much to the waitress’ dismay. Akira laughs it off, saying that a lady shouldn’t take the risk of hurting her hands in the most suave way he could muster. 

_It’s fine, He thinks. It’s a just a cup. No way it’s that expen ---_

He sees the brand and he swears right then and there he goes pale.

_Oh shit._

Okay, there’s no need to panic. He has a whole semester to earn for this shit. Do they take installments? He can throw in a few part time jobs to pay for it. He can skip a meal or two. He did this shit to save up for weapons and meds and school requirements while juggling up more expenses to save the world from a fake god in high school so there’s absolutely no way his wallet is getting done in by a stupid teacup made of porcelain from fucking Europe.

Then again, he has two books that he needs to buy for a subject and he knows he still needs to pay for his part of the rent. Oh God, weren’t the pipes busted and they needed to be repaired? _Well then Ryuji, let’s skip the plumber. I can fix that shit myself, there’s nothing more superior than DIY YouTube hacks and a few rolls of tape._

“I’ll pay for it instead.” Narukami’s voice breaks him out of the trance and his head immediately turns to him when the man already looks like he asked for the bill for the the cup.

“Oh no, you don’t need to I have---” _Yeah, try to finish that sentence, Kurusu. How much money do you actually have?_

“No, it’s fine. It was my fault, anyway.”Narukami says. “I’d feel bad for letting a student pay for it too.”

At this moment, Akira’s pretty sure that Narukami’s the one who’s actually glowing brighter than the gods this time. 

“Then I’ll take you up on that?” Akira laughs awkwardly. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” Narukami smiles at him but it gets cut short when his eyes fall back to Akira’s soiled shirt.

“Oh uh-” Akira then buttons up his blazer and that seems to do the trick, the coffee stain’s barely visible.

“I still feel bad about your shirt.” Narukami sighs. “I really am sorry.”

“No, it’s okay!” Akira replies again. “It’s really fine. I mean, you’re already paying for the cup too.”

“I really technically wouldn’t be paying if I was careful so this doesn’t really need thanks.” 

“Senpai?” The voice they heard earlier is nearer now and Akira sees the blue haired girl on the cafe’s door. She glances at Narukami and then to the broken cup Akira put on the table and then to Akira himself. “…Okay, what happened?”

This is getting awkward. Akira smiles and bows at her before looking back at Narukami who doesn’t look like he’s about to let the whole shirt thing go.

Dammit, him and fucking coffee. He should have settled for water.

“Oh,” Narukami says, fist hitting his palm like he’s had an epiphany right then and there. “I could just pay for the shirt, too!”

Definitely not an epiphany.

“No! Definitely not!”

“Then I’ll buy you a new one?”

“Narukami-san, you really don’t ---”

“What about I buy a shirt and a set of other shirts?”

What the actual fuck.

The woman, who finally seems to know the crux of the situation then taps Narukami’s shoulder. “Senpai, that’s not a way to properly apologize.”

Oh thank God, she seems to understand.

“Throw in a pair of glasses for him too.” She says with a thumbs up and Akira wants to the ground to eat him whole.

“Nice idea.” Narukami says to her and looks back to Akira. “I’ll add a pair of glasses.”

Akira gives up.

He sighs roughly, takes his wire framed glasses and massages the bridge of his nose. These aren’t the type of investigators he had in mind when he only encountered two who were far too different. One who tried to put a bullet in his head and another who seemed to doubt that he finished the Big Bang Burger challenge three nights in a row when he was interrogated.

“Tell you what,” Akira starts, trying to gather up some ways for Narukami to repay him in a way that wouldn’t waste his cash. “What if we settle for this? We could, I don’t know? Get another cup of coffee and chat again?”

Narukami blinks at him, and then smiles. 

“Yeah, sure. That’s a lot better.” Narukami seemed to be rather pleased that he could get coffee with him again. Or at least that’s what Akira thinks.

“Sweet. No more shirts and glasses.” Akira sighs.

Narukami gives his business card after that as well as his colleague --- Shirogane Naoto who, unlike Narukami, is an actual fucking cop --- with Akira writing off his contact information on a piece of tissue because Narukami seemed too eager to have it, thinking that Akira would forget to contact him.

“I really am sorry about this. I’ll make it up to you.” Narukami apologizes again after paying for the cup. 

“You really don’t have to though.” Akira reassures. “It’s cool.”

Shirogane calls him again and whispers something that Akira can’t make up.

“Well then, we really need to go now. It’s really been nice meeting you, Kurusu-san.” They move towards the exit.

Akira laughs, waves at him. “You’ll get your date soon, Narukami-san!” He says jokingly. He probably should have just recommended Leblanc rather than ambiguously say have coffee. 

Narukami chuckles back. “Sure thing, looking forward to it.” He says and Shirogane scoffs and raises a brow at him. “Except that there’s one thing, Kurusu-san.”

“Hm?” Akira tilts his head.

“I have a boyfriend.” Narukami smiles.

Akira can feel the hot wave of embarrassment that hits him. He didn’t really mean it that way but Akira chooses to ride with it.

“Two timing then, great.” Akira says with a snap. “Always wanted to be a side bitch.” And this time, both Narukami and Shirogane laugh before they leave, disappearing entirely for Akira to slump back to his seat. Forget Sae’s interrogation --- that was the most exhausting conversation he had in his life.

Ryuji arrives fifteen minutes later “What’s gotten you looking like a deflated balloon?” 

“The cops, apparently.” Akira groans but Ryuji doesn’t seem to understand. 

“Dude, what happened to your shirt!?” He asks instead and Akira then starts to spot the brown map of coffee creeping out of his blazer.

“Got stabbed,” Akira grabs his chest and fakes the pained grunt. “my blood is actually coffee now.”

* * *

The ramen shop that they wanted to check out is, much to Ryuji’s despair, closed.

Akira doesn’t really know how it happened but he did in fact pinpointed the exact moment Ryuji’s heart was split in two. Apparently, the owner closed shop for the day due to some drunk assholes thrashing up the place last night with noodles flying in the air, a few broken bowls and all in all, according to a regular,it wasn’t a pretty sight.

Especially for Ryuji.

“What the actual fuck dude! Who _throws_ ramen!?” Ryuji complains, throwing off his hands. 

They’re on a train back to their apartment near university. Ryuji, much like how he was years ago, still manages to run his mouth in the highest volume he could go regardless of wherever he is. Morgana would probably scratch his hand to shut him up and Ann would most definitely scold him while hitting him lightly on the head but Akira, on the other hand, doesn’t.

There’s hardly any more people in the train --- which was kind of surprising --- and Akira’s way too tired to calm Ryuji down on his spiel revolving around ramen injustice.

“I’m just happy the police got there in time before any ramen deaths increased.” Akira says but there’s still a very disappointed pout on Ryuji’s face.

“No shit,” Ryuji sighs. “Doesn’t really change the fact that I went there for nothing.”

“Hey, you came to see me.” Akira hits him lightly on the shoulder. “You’re the first to see this face -” He frames his face with his hands. “after three days!”

Ryuji scoffs, rolls his eyes and then shakes his head before he laces his voice with sarcasm. “Yeah, totally psyched about it. Really.”

“Gotta admit I have a pretty face.” Akira almost sings it in a smug tone enough for Ryuji to laugh at him. “Prettier than Ann.”

He’s surely going to get slapped by Ann but that’s the point --- Ann’s pretty face isn’t there and what Ann doesn’t hear won’t hurt her or Akira’s well-being too.

“No.” Another scoff escapes his lips. “No, ‘Kira you are _not_ prettier than Ann.” He says but a part of Ryuji starts scanning Akira’s face from his long lashes to his pale skin and continues. “’Kira, just screw your pretty face,” Ryuji quotes the words with his fingers exaggeratedly. “It could bring itself home if I have no ramen.”

“Wow, that kind of hurt. I feel betrayed.” Akira rolls his eyes. “What happened to being best bros? I should’ve ripped you away from Futaba’s influence before you started going against me! That gremlin nature of hers is sneaking into your lips that it hurts me, Ryuji.”

“Too bad! ‘Taba’s been kissing Yusuke’s face too much that she doesn’t even have time to influence shit other than doujinshi readers on the net.” Ryuji spits back in fake triumph before he slumps back into the train seat. “I on the other hand am too busy wallowing my life away by eating anatomy books.”

Akira pats his back in the hopes of offering comfort. 

“Beat those shitty bones away in that book, Skull.” He says with a slap on Ryuji’s back and that comment seems to be enough to brighten up his mood.

“Well, if the leader says so then I have no choice, do I?” Ryuji smirks.

They arrive in their apartment a little after dusk. The sky darkens, eating up the traces of orange light left by the day. He and Ryuji share a space at the second floor of a fairly cheap complex that Ryuji deems haunted due to its suspiciously low rent price. It’s not extravagant but compared to the attic in Leblanc it’s cleaner and well, less likely to fall apart (Except the plumbing system, it’s shit. Akira suddenly realizes that no, the complex isn’t haunted but it’s just prone to being possessed by plumbing demons in the middle of the night to rob them of clean water). 

Sojiro, at first, seemed to object the subject of him leaving Leblanc and truth be told, Akira didn’t seem pleased with the idea back then too but it was the deathly commute that made everything difficult. Akira remembers the first days of university being just a giant battle of barely getting into classes on time due to the distance of the cafe. With this, he and Sojiro surrendered and thankfully, Ryuji seemed to be lacking a room mate who could split the rent with him. 

They open the door, turn the lights on and the moment they do, a ball of black fur immediately throws itself onto them with an all too familiar meow.

_“Morgana!?”_ Ryuji yells, lifting the cat up. “Wha --- What the hell are you doing here!? What are you gonna do if the landlord sees you?”

“The question revolves around what the _landlord_ is going to do if he sees Morgana. He’s allergic to cats and we’d be bringing someone to the hospital for a shot.” Akira says.

“Yeah, unless you’ve already done that to him you stupid cat.” Ryuji says back and Morgana retaliates, wriggling out of Ryuji’s hands.

“I’m not a cat!” Morgana screeches. “And no, Boss Number Two isn’t in the hospital choking on cat fur. He’s just really out this time.” He continues. “And seriously, you gotta lock the door, what if I wasn’t here to guard this place?”

“As if you actually do some guarding around here, Morgana.” Ryuji yawns and walks past the cat, eventually throwing himself on the sofa. 

“Do to!” Morgana retorts back with a hiss.

Akira rubs Morgana’s head fondly. “It’s nice seeing you again, Morgana.” He makes a beeline to the bedroom to change into a new shirt. Apparently, upon close inspection, the coffee-stained shirt doesn’t look as bad as he expected especially since Narukami acted like he did.

“See? Follow his example! At least one person’s acknowledging my efforts here.” Akira hears Morgana say.

“The dude never said anything about you doing a good job though. Or anything at all.” Ryuji sighs, scrolling through his phone before he clicks his tongue and mumbles. “Aw crap, another quiz?”

Akira closes the door and brings himself over to the small niche that is the kitchen with Morgana not too far behind him. It’s not as big as Leblanc’s but it’s enough for making good coffee. “Is it the subject under that professor you keep referring to as ‘baldy’ or is it the one who always seems to be high on something?”

Ryuji throws his phone to the table with an annoyed grunt. “Baldy.” He says. “At eight in the morning too.” He then scratches his blonde head exasperatingly. “I gotta have to eat the damn book tonight damn it.”

“It was your choice to take pre-med Ryuji. Don’t go throwing your brain out the window.” Morgana tells him.

“Yeah, yeah, all right. I’m studying.” Ryuji then says, a forced drag into his voice as he moves over to his bag to get his books. “Happy now, cat?”

“I am not a cat!” Morgana hisses again and then turns to Akira. “But hey, now that you’re back did you bring any souvenir sushi for yours truly?”

Morgana’s eyes are shining and he’s pretty sure he’s expecting a positive response since the sushi in his place is all that Morgana talks about after getting a taste of it back when Akira was still in his last year of high school.

“Morgana, I went home. Not sushi palaces galore.” 

Morgana’s ears droop. “But your place literally is sushi palaces galore!”

“Yeah and you’re talking to a college student.”

“You’re a college student, not broke!”

“But that’s the thing. Those two things mean exactly the same now.” Oh how he misses being sort-of-rich. The things he would do to go cash hunting in Mementos right now, seriously.

He shakes the thought off. Mementos is gone, there’s no use wishing it would return. Akira sighs tiredly and brings back his attention to both Ryuji and Morgana who seems to be getting busy raising their voices about the former’s changed study habits.

It’s been a while ever since the apartment got loud, Akira thinks. The last time was probably a surprise party the gang threw for him and they managed to squeeze themselves up in the place. Ryuji was challenging Yusuke with ridiculous eating contests (with the mochi Haru brought and it definitely wasn’t a good idea if Ryuji was just ignoring the fact that it was a huge choking hazard) and Futaba was recording everything. Makoto was urging all of them to stop but that never really did anything other than add fuel to the fire which ended up in a whole lot of noise that enabled the landlord to actually come knocking on their door as if he wanted to break it.

“Study up then, I’ll make us something to eat.” Akira says to Ryuji once he finishes making his cup of coffee. Somehow, the plastic-like taste of the cold coffee he had with Narukami just made him crave for real coffee --- Sojiro’s coffee.

“Yeah, sure. Thanks, dude. I owe---” Ryuji cuts himself off when his nose catches on a somewhat familiar smell. “You’re making coffee!?”

“Yeah. Want some? I could make another cup for you.”

“N-No, dude. I was just curious. Don’t you have like anything to do? You were gone from uni for three days!”

Akira takes a look at his phone and skims over his messages. “Apparently most of my professors are attending a seminar in Kyoto. Hifumi never told me anything important while I was gone either.”

“You’re one lucky bastard, aren’t you?” Yeah, Ryuji probably won’t be saying that when he sees Akira on the verge of fainting after not sleeping for seven days straight before finals. “Speaking of Togo though,” He starts rummaging through his bag and gets out a thick bounded ream of paper that seems to contain legible handwritten text. “Here you go.” He hands it over to Akira.

He then proceeds to move away from the kitchen and take the bounded ream from Ryuji. “And this is…?” 

“Togo’s notes. I ran into her the other day and she told me to give them to you.”

“Oh,” As expected of Hifumi. “These are for how many subjects? Did she say anything else?”

“Nah, it’s only for one subject dude. Your… economics one? Not sure.”

“No _shit._ ” Akira’s eyes almost go out of their sockets. “This is for _one_ subject!?”

There’s a smirk snaking on Ryuji’s face. “Guess it’s reading all night for you too?”

Yeah, no kidding. He probably would be.

“About dinner,” Akira swallows the lump in his throat because he swears, the weight of the handouts is definitely threatening him. “Can we settle on having take-out?”

Ryuji chuckles tiredly. “Study up, dude.”

They read their study materials in silence for quite a while with Ryuji releasing noises of annoyance upon reading something that he couldn’t understand. Morgana manages to fall asleep on the sofa as they do. Akira, on the other hand, is busy trying to comprehend what the actual fuck happened in his and Hifumi’s classes when he was gone because for some reason this was a completely different topic compared to where they left off.

“You know what? I’m failing.” Ryuji throws his hands above his head, dropping off his pencil and closing his book. “Sakamoto Ryuji, Shujin Alumni, and Phantom Thief drops off Physical Therapy at his second year. I’m done. I’m failing. You think I’ll be able to make a living working at a convenience store?”

“Ryuji, there’s no need to be dramatic.” He pinches the bridge off his nose. _You’re not the only one who’s not understanding shit._

“Says the guy who said he was stabbed earlier.” Ryuji rests his chin on his palm and rolls his eyes. “Why am I even studying at this time? I _don’t_ study. How the fuck did this happen?”

“Makoto would be proud, you know. All it took for you to study was to take up Physical Therapy.” 

“Yeah, if Makoto being proud can get me to pass this subject then get me a bucket of Makoto being proud!” Ryuji replies in frustration. “Ugh, I should have seen this coming. I barely made it in uni with my grades. I was really tempted to write _“Past Phantom Thief Who Saved the Fucking Universe --- An Essay”_ as a requirement for me to get in.”

Akira slaps his back. “Phantom Thief or not, you still got in Ryuji. The same thing goes with passing. Phantom Thief or not, you’ll still pass.”

Ryuji closes his exhausted eyes for a bit but the frustration on his face disappears and is masked by a small smile. “I can’t believe you still know what to say at a time like this.”

Akira flips a page from the handouts and laughs lightly. “I bet you can steal away some knowledge from only three pages over the hundred you have to study.”

The blonde’s head snaps back onto him. “Wha-”

“At this pace, maybe two.” He says, Joker’s mask of mischief overcoming him.

“Okay, encourage me or diss me, Kurusu. You can’t do both!” Ryuji smacks him lightly on the shoulder, annoyed.

“I will do whatever I want!” Akira says back, his voice deeper and firmer.

“Oh, no. No shit. You ain’t using that leader voice on me, ‘Kira!”

“Too late, already am.”

* * *

_He wakes up in that room again._

_A gasp is stuck in his throat and his head starts swimming, the monotonous grays of the walls start mixing in his eyes in the most dizzying manner. His heart is beating in his ears, mixing with the painful ringing that continues to get louder. There’s fire in his lungs --- he can’t breathe --- and it spreads further to his poisoned blood and to the pores of his skin, burning him in the tongues of anxiety._

_And then it turns overwhelmingly cold when he realizes where he’s at._

_“No,” He forces out a croak._

_It’s dark --- a box full of black and grays and an overwhelmingly searing light over his head. The floor is stained with grime and blood along with plastic syringes reflecting what light that’s eating away at the darkness._

_His hands aren’t ringed with bruises, his leg doesn’t seem to be broken, and certainly, his blood isn’t tainted with whatever drug there was to use but the the inky dark haze of fear still manages to creep up in his heart and triumph over him._

The Phantom Thieves are done. _Akira thinks._ I’m out of that room. _He tries to breathe._

_Time has to heal all the wounds of the heart but for some reason everything from that day in November is still vividly clear in his head --- the crippling fear, the confusion, his trembling hands and Sae’s echoing voice._

_But whenever he comes back here, he never hears Sae._

_“Case closed.”_

_A gasp escapes from his throat and panicked eyes dart onto the person at the interrogator’s seat --- brown hair, a familiar coat, and black gloves._

_“This is how your justice ends.” He says to Akira._

_There’s a gun on the table but the man in front of him doesn’t bat it a glance._

_Akira tries to speak but he feels as if he had been thrown overboard from a ship and into the sea --- he’s drowning into an abyss with his voice being lost to the great waves as he drowns. He manages to get out a name but even he can’t hear it; overlayed with the sound of static buzzing in his ears._

_The man on the other hand hears it and his pleasant features morph into an expression of grief._

_“Why?” The man’s voice echoes. “Why can’t I kill you!?”_

_The man stands up, enraged, a deranged look in his eyes. He lunges to Akira and they fall back to the floor, the gun left forgotten on the table, gloved fingers encircling on Akira’s throat._

_“Why can’t I kill you!?” The man screams again, his voice pained --- desperate as his grip tightens on Akira’s neck. “Set me free---”_

_Akira struggles under the man’s strength, his fingers clawing through gloved hands to no avail._

_“Set me free.” He says again._

_“Wha-” He gasps._

_“Set me free.” He repeats, as if caught in a mantra, each syllable weighing on Akira’s heart. “Setmefreesetmefreesetmefreesetmefree---”_

“Akira, wake up!”

It’s as if he was dropped back into where he dozed off in reality --- the feeling he gets when he exits Mementos and looks up to see Shibuya’s colors devoid of the nasty red and gloomy shades. His eyelids peel open and there’s a blotch of blonde hair in his line of sight before it clears off into Ryuji’s face. He takes a deep inhale, there’s sweat pouring down his forehead and his palm moves comb through his fringe.

Akira groans, turning his head away while he closes his eyes for a moment when he feels a dull ache pulsating from his temple.

“---’Kira,” Ryuji’s voice is swimming in his ears. “Akira,” He calls again, louder, clearer.

He swallows the lump in his throat and hums.

“Does your head hurt? Do you feel nauseous? Any pain at all?” The words are formed slowly, carefully, as if trying to help Akira understand what they meant. He could scoff at the composure in Ryuji’s voice --- it almost doesn’t sound like him --- but the sound gets hooked off in his throat that it ends up sounding like a whine.

“What’s with the med student questions?” His chuckle is breathless but it’s still him trying to lift up the heaviness weighing in the atmosphere nonetheless. Ryuji, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to buy it.

_“Akira.”_

“Yeah, I’m fine. Don’t worry. No headaches, no nausea, no nothing.” Akira says with his voice back. He then sits up, he must have fallen asleep on the sofa. His brows furrow, he doesn’t remember falling asleep on the sofa nor does he remember stopping himself from reading those handouts Hifumi gave him but he shakes the feeling off. He’s tired from the travel and he knows exhaustion can do wonders to the human psyche --- he used to forget lots of the things he did when he was drained from traversing palaces too. “Where’s Morgana?”

“Went back to Leblanc. The landlord came back.” Ryuji says to him.

There’s a pregnant pause for a while and then Ryuji sighs, as if relieved. He looks at Akira’s face for a moment and his mouth opens then closes like he’s trying to find the right words to say until a high pitched beeping occupies the silence in the room, cutting off whatever he has in mind.

It’s Akira’s phone.

“Oh yeah, it’s been ringing for some time now.” Ryuji says, scooping the phone from the table and bringing it over to Akira without looking at the screen. “Was going to answer it and tell them you’re asleep but I was in the bathroom.”

Akira unlocks his phone and sees a familiar green icon flooding up his messages and he clicks his tongue.

“It’s Futaba, God, I can’t believe I forgot.” Akira stands up and dashes to the bedroom for a fresh set of clothes doesn’t reek of sweat.

“Forgot what?” Ryuji follows him.

“I promised her I’d drop by after we had ramen.” Akira’s sure he would have remembered it he actually _had_ ramen. “If I go now then I could spend some time there and be back before the trains stop.”

“You’re gonna go to Leblanc at this hour?”

“It should still be open and it’s not even that late yet.” He puts on a blazer and then turns back Ryuji. “Do I look okay?” _Do I look like I’m not going to worry them?_

“You look like you just woke up.” Ryuji deadpans.

“Not helping.” Akira shoots back, 

“You could always tell them you’d come tomorrow.” Ryuji tells him.

“Why come tomorrow when I can come today?” He replies.

Akira goes to the bathroom and damn, Ryuji’s not wrong. He splashes water onto his face and once he looks back into the mirror with his fringe out of his features, he sees fairly noticeable scar on his temple that doesn’t seem to have any intention of fading --- remnants of an old ugly gash to his head.

The water continues to run --- the pipes seem to be okay today --- and the sound of water hitting the sink echoes throughout the room. His fingers lightly goes over the scar and he feels the lightly elevated mass of skin on his head.

“Akira, about earlier,” He hears Ryuji through the door. “You know you could always talk to me, right?”

“There’s nothing to talk about.” Akira says. “You already know what I’m going to say.”

Ryuji doesn’t pry any more. Instead he forces out a laugh, it comes out somber. “Just make sure to text me if you’re sleeping over at Leblanc. I’d be staying up all night if you didn’t.”

“Yup, sure will.” Akira replies. "But even if I text or not, wouldn't you be not sleeping anyways? I smell a textbook begging to be read again."

Ryuji lets out a sound of annoyance and it doesn't fail to thread a smile on Akira's face.

There are things that Akira realized when he went back to Tokyo for university --- he’s not Joker anymore and that he will never go back to that room.

The one last thing that he needs to acknowledge is the fact that Akechi Goro is dead.

* * *

The rain came out of nowhere and Yu barely escaped the shower when he went out of the apartment the moment Naoto called to tell him that she was downstairs waiting in a fucking car.

Yosuke was --- as much as the man never wants to admit it --- disappointed with a lopsided frown painted on his face upon the call. Truth be told, even Yu himself felt robbed of time especially since he hasn’t seen his partner for a long while due to all the piled up cases he had been receiving.

Things aren’t the way they used to be; it’s one pill that’s hard to swallow on Yu’s book. High school was the prime time of his life. He managed to gain friends, solve mysteries, discover family; what more could he ask for? But much like his visits in Inaba, they were temporary. He graduated, his friends --- although they still remain in touch --- had gone through different paths and Nanako’s grown up into a fine woman.

They’re not in high school anymore. The world inside the TV is gone and the only murders he’s been solving are the ones in reality; the ones tainted in dirty corrupted malice that would be on par to any supernatural case.

It has been years, really, and the more Yu digs further with his job, the more he’s convinced that there are more things that are scarier than personas battling off with shadows and that’s to deal with the limitations of reality and the endless stream of corrupted desire that rests inside every human being.

At this point, it’s normal. The dead bodies, the unlikely twists, the uncalled plots of betrayal; Yu looks at these through dozens of files and millions of images that he has learned to keep the vomit in his stomach. Yosuke on the other hand has been nothing but worried.

The guy had been climbing up the ranks in the business tycoons and some part of Yu never predicted that he’d see Yosuke busied with international calls and stock exchanges. 

There are times that Yu forgets the time that caught up to him though. At the dead of night with Yosuke in his arms fast asleep, he pretends that they’re still the awkward teenagers who were afraid to confess to each other back in Inaba. He’d sometimes doze off and believe his game of pretend is real, his gaze falling on the television, waiting for it to turn on in static before it clears up to show a person with yellow eyes staring back at him but they it never does.

“I’m really sorry about this, Senpai.” Naoto says, hands still on the wheel as they pass through the rain-slicked roads. “It was an urgent call and since you’re working with us, I had to let you come with.”

“This is work, you don’t have to apologize.” Yu says to her. 

She laughs nervously. “Was Yosuke-senpai mad?”

“Disappointed that we won’t be getting a night together but far from mad.” Yu replies, remembering the puffed up face of annoyance his partner had the moment he said Naoto was downstairs and the image brings a chuckle out of his lips. “It’s been a while after all since both of you are the only ones who work here in Tokyo. When I think about it, part of me is jealous that you get to meet up with him more than I do.”

“As if Yosuke-senpai can talk about anything else other than you.” Naoto scoffs. “Well, other than the Chinese Junes branch he’s hyped about, the conversation has always been about you.”

He feels touched, honestly but this really isn’t the time to be bummed about not being with Yosuke.

“I read the file,” Yu says to her. “The one you sent me.”

There’s silence that comes after and it’s eaten up by the pitter patter of the rain on the windows.

“It reminds of it, you know. Inaba.” Naoto says after a pause, her finger tapping on the wheel in an in an unknown rhythm. 

“A string of murders around Tokyo; there have been three victims who have died in different ways with only a small set of similarities.” You breathes in, reaching out for his case to bring out the files. “Four now, I presume?” 

Naoto squeezes the bridge of her nose and nods. “I was called in earlier. We’re heading towards the scene.”

“Have the victims been identified?”

“The cases are fairly new. We have yet to receive all the forensics and reports. As of now, the victims are unidentified.”

Yu hums in response. The rain continues to pour and when he looks out of the window, the sky reaching buildings had almost been erased by the scene as they move farther from the heart of the metropolis and into a lone road lit by only a few streetlights with its sides guarded by pretty sturdy looking railings. 

“It isn’t in the city?” Yu asks her.

“Near the city.” She replies and hits the breaks, parking the car at the very side of the road near the railings. 

“Here?” Yu blinks.

“Down below.” She says, unbuckling her seat belt before getting out of the car. She pops her head back inside and gives Yu a questioning look. “You getting our or not, Senpai?”

Yu nods at her, unbuckling his own seat belt before he gets himself out of the car and into the pouring rain.

“I think umbrellas would only get in the way though, I’m sorry about this.” Naoto tells him once she moves closer to the railings. She glances back at Yu and flicks her head to the side, gesturing Yu to follow her and Yu does.

Beyond the railings was a rather steep inclination downward revealing a sea of darkness that even the streetlights cannot reach. Naoto seemed to have gotten something out of the car which looked to be two flashlights and she hands one out to him. 

“Come on,” Naoto says and Yu turns on the flashlight and turns it over to the sea of black below the railings, forming a path of branches lit up brightly. 

They bring themselves over the railings, carefully calculating the position their feet would land on. The soil is soft and slick from the rain. If they don’t pay attention, they might as well come tumbling down the hill of mud and into the abyss below them. Thankfully, amidst the difficulty of the terrain in the darkness, they manage to go through the branches lit by their flashlights and go further inside the groove of trees.

Not long after, Yu sees a collection of lights shining through the woods and a few more voices and camera flashes in the distance.

“They made it here before us, I see.” He hears Naoto mumble.

Just then, a light starts shining on their faces bright enough for Yu to squint and impulsively blocking it with his arm.

“Oh,” A voice says. “Shi-Shirogane-san!” A young man with disheveled hair, his eyes widened and tired, as if relieved to see his superior. With a closer look, Yu could say that the man is pale and his hands are slightly trembling; he looks like he's going to be sick. He then blinks at the sight of Yu. “Shirogane-san and...?”

“Ah, Narukami Yu.” He says, reaching out for a handshake in which the other man takes. “I’m the private investigator assisting with this case.”

His eyes then widen once more in realization and his mouth goes slightly agape when he nods his head. He brightens up a little and there’s color returning slightly to his face. “The one we hired then! It’s nice to meet you, Narukami-san! Ah, I’m really happy that you get to help us with this case. So sorry to call you in at this moment though, the rain is so bad and it’s so cold so I hope it doesn’t bother you that mu-” He holds Yu’s hand with both of his and shakes it again.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have that much time to chit-chat right now, Nishimiya.” Naoto interjects, raising her brow and pointing out the vast darkness and heavy rain. “Take us to where she is.”

The young man --- Nishimiya --- then straightens up before he gives a salute. “Y-Yes, ma’am!”

Nishimiya leads them further into the grove and the other voices they heard seem to get louder when they move closer to their direction.

“You’re pretty far from the rest.” Naoto comments and Nishimiya flinches.

He turns to them awkwardly and he starts to laugh in a nervous way, scratching the nape of his neck. “I kinda… ran off when I saw the body.” He says sheepishly. “I didn’t really… wanna throw my dinner all over the evidence so…”

“Is it the same as the report?” Naoto asks after a sigh, brushing the answer off when Nishimiya’s voice dwindled into a whisper.

Nishimiya hums. “We managed to confirm the call and the report from the nearest station. They seem to match from what we’ve gathered.” He then clicks his tongue. “The rain sucks though, I just really hope that we preserve as much stuff as we can. The other guys are giving up on it already.”

Naoto scoffs and mumbles. “Those lazy little shits.” 

Wow, it’s really been a while since he heard Naoto curse.

They manage to get to the scene a few minutes later. The officers had cleared the area, there’s yellow tape caging the place; tied around the trunks of trees and the flashes of cameras spark up in the darkness.

A few people stopped to salute and Naoto had introduced Yu to her team who seemed to busy to stop and offer their greetings in which Yu understands. The rain doesn’t seem to give any indication on stopping so most of them are doing what they can to preserve whatever they find.

Nishimiya leads both of them to where the body was. “We didn’t move it yet.”

And Yu sees it.

As he stands there in the darkness of the forest, a sudden thought had entered his head, forming into an image he thought was long gone --- a girl hanging lifeless on a roof inside the static of a television. 

He prevents a gasp from escaping his lips. He shines the flashlight on the tree branches and the brown twigs had been covered in crimson reflecting the light back to them. The arms had been cut off and tied by a string from the sticking white bones to the branches. The legs, in a similar fashion, had been separated from the body and grotesquely shoved in the small spaces in between the trunk all twisted and broken.

The torso hangs in the middle, naked and red, wet from the rain.The chest was dug up, the heart was missing and a gaping hole stares back at them. The abdomen had been opened up like a butchered pig, a huge jagged cut shows it emptied out of organs. Instead, what resides in the hollowed out body was the victim’s head --- its face torn inconsistently as if chunks of meat had been ripped off portion by portion until the white of the skull was exposed. 

Nishimiya, upon seeing the victim again, excuses himself and runs off with his hand over his mouth.

“Fucking psycho.” Naoto curses under her breath, her hands tightly made into fists in seething anger and in truth, Yu feels the same --- a fiery pit in his gut threatens to spill over in the coldness of the rain.

As Yu scans the body, his eyes then fall to the victim’s teeth which seem to be biting a small card. He digs for a pair of gloves in his pocket and carefully removes it from his spot.

In the case files Naoto had sent him, the murderer on the loose went wild in his methods of killing but leaves a few steps unchanged.

The victims’ faces had always been ripped off. Their hearts were taken out of their chests and lastly, a card was always found in between their teeth which contained a simple message addressed to the same people.

Yu then turns the card over, the words are formed by pasted letters cut off from different printed sources, the ink sagging and dripping from the rain but they stare back at Yu clearly ---

_Her heart has been stolen, Phantom Thieves._


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yu tries to go deeper in investigating the string of murders without trying to worry Yosuke and it's with a conversation with Naoto that things go on an unexpected turn. Meanwhile, Akira asks for a ghost to haunt him amidst the brewing storm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again guys! Thank you so much for the positive response on the previous chapter and I absolutely enjoyed reading the comments :>
> 
> I was supposed to update this on the 13th but I never really expected for it to be this long hahaha (it's a 15k word chapter I can't even believe it myself). The goal for this chapter was basically to establish some dynamics with the characters in the story. With that, I made sure to present how Yu acts with Yosuke and Naoto and for Akira, of course, some Phantom Thieves dynamics. Of course, I also didn't want it purely to be a happy chapter so I started touching the iceberg on our murder mystery! 
> 
> Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter and please stay safe in quarantine! 
> 
> Also, I don't have a beta, I'll die how I want to hahaha.

He wakes up with the light seeping in through the curtains. The ticking of the clock echoes throughout the room and in his dazed state under the disarranged covers, he realizes the absence of the familiar weight around his arms. He hums in question, lifting his head slightly from his pillow to see that there’s no one next to him on the bed.

Yu’s eyes clear up, the room is bathed in bright morning light bouncing off the white walls. He makes no move from his place on the bed and for a solid five minutes he just stares at the place where Yosuke had been. 

“Yosuke?” His voice is a rasp, barely a whisper but the silence of the room makes it seem loud enough to be heard.

And it was indeed, heard.

Yosuke pops up his head from the door to their room, his hair still unkept but his hands expertly tightening his tie. “Oh, you’re awake.”

There’s a smile on Yosuke’s face and for a split second, Yu sees his partner’s high school self overlayed on his expression --- the small, awkward blushed up grin that he had the moment Yu confessed years ago. Then, the image is enough to take away the sleep left in his veins as he finally finds himself fully awake.

“Good morning, sleepy head.” Yosuke sits on the bed, threading his fingers on Yu’s silver strands and Yu leans on the touch. Yosuke’s in his full suit, he notices, and he tries to hide his expression of disappointment at the thought of Yosuke leaving this early in the morning. “You got home late last night, how are you feeling?”

Yu’s mind was anything but blank last night. The police had taken the body for an autopsy as well as the evidence for forensic testing. Naoto apparently went to a prosecutor’s office trying to satisfy a curious speculation she had when they were about to leave, making Yu go back to the city alone. Thankfully, the rain let up and he wasn’t unlucky enough to catch a cold.

Yosuke was asleep when he opened the door to the apartment when he came back. Yu found him with his head on his arms in the living area and Yu really didn’t need to guess that the brunet forced himself to stay up to wait for him and undoubtedly failed.

There’s a pout on Yu’s lips and he himself doesn’t even notice it. He shifts from his position on the bed and encircles his arms around Yosuke’s body. “Morning. Just tired.” He says groggily, he remembers staying up into the night with his thoughts raging wild of a certain murder case before he got knocked out at some point. “The curry you made was good.” He laughs.

Yosuke managed to cook and save some curry for him last night. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t bummed out about not getting to eat his first meal back in Tokyo with Yosuke --- _his_ cooking! --- but he throws that thought out of his head and tries to remember how much Yosuke had improved in cooking ever since high school.

Yosuke chuckles at his comment and pats his head. “Too bad it wasn’t heated up.”

“’Twas good anyway.” He replies fondly.

A certain beep then catches Yu’s attention and realizes that it’s Yosuke’s phone. On the third ring after seeing the name on the screen, Yosuke picks up and starts speaking in a language that Yu can’t even decipher and it shocks him upright with a single thought --- _what the fuck._

His voice is different when he speaks in another language --- he seems like another person in general; the way he puts stresses on words, the way he fixes a certain sound to match an accent.

Yu, at that moment, finds it surprisingly hot. The reasons? He’s not quite sure but the only thing he’s certain about is that he doesn’t need to find a specific “reason” when it makes his partner ten times more attractive than he already is. At this point, Yu realizes, he’s at the edge of temptation from just pulling the phone away from Yosuke and just kissing him right then and there.

When Yosuke finishes the call, he stands up and gathers some notes from the bedside table and shoves them into his satchel.

“Fluent Mandarin, huh.” Yu lifts up a brow. “Ever thought of talking to me in that voice?”

There’s a smirk snaking up on Yosuke’s lips. “Cantonese, actually.” He says. “And that depends partner, I kinda like it when you actually understand what I’m saying.” He continues, pinching Yu slightly on the cheek and a collection of words spill over Yosuke’s lips again with a cheeky smirk.

Yu doesn’t know what that means but he’ll buy it. Yosuke could be saying something of how much of a bitch Yu is right now but who the fuck cares really? Yu just wants Yosuke to say it to his face again.

Yu is going to learn Cantonese, he decides. He will definitely set aside some time in his schedule to learn Cantonese.

Yosuke answers another call --- this time in Japanese --- and the phone is pinched back in the middle of his cheek and his shoulder as he notes whatever the other guy is saying over the line on the memo pad as he maneuvers himself outside of the room. Yu follows him slowly, scratching the back of his head. He’s never seen Yosuke this busy ever since Junes’ Foundation Anniversary last year and the venue unluckily caught on fire because of a stupid firecracker lit indoors.

He sees Yosuke dashing to the kitchen with his hand rapidly moving to match the words spat out of the phone. When the man finishes, he aggressively pours himself a glass of water from the fridge and drinks it all in one gulp with so much suppressed panic that it’s starting to stress _Yu_ out.

“Work this early in the morning? Is it a busy day?” Yu drops himself down on the stool and rests his cheek on his palm.

“We’re opening an international branch.” Yosuke sighs and pulls out opposite to Yu’s before burying his face in his hands with a rough sigh. “Some people are coming from overseas and shit, I’m scared of fucking everything up and possibly wetting my pants along the way.”

Yu’s hand reaches out for his as he chuckles softly, the pad of his thumb soothing over the back of Yosuke’s palm like it’s meant to calm his nerve and in truth, Yu hopes that it does so when the brunet’s face loosens up, there’s a quick wave of relief that rushes over him. “Come on, you’ve aced deals before haven’t you? You’re gonna do great.”

“I just hope someone doesn’t bring any more firecrackers again to the meeting.” Yosuke responds with a smile after a playful click of his tongue.

“Naoto and I will come running with a warrant of arrest!” Yu says and it’s enough to make Yosuke’s mouth spill over with laughs.

“Talk about abuse of power.”

“It isn’t if we charge the guy with arson.” Yu raises a brow and Yosuke shakes his head.

“Unbelievable. You’re as smooth as ever with these things aren’t you?” Yosuke giggles and Yu’s not going to lie, he feels a full boost to his confidence the moment the words came out. “What about you though? You’re not called over this morning?”

Yu stands up and gets a glass of water from the fridge, Yosuke’s gaze following his direction. “We stayed up pretty late last night and Naoto still went over to the Prosecutor’s Office. I doubt she’ll be awake right now.” Yu sighs roughly. Now that he thinks of it, the murders have been around for quite around already. Four victims --- if anything, it scares Yu a little and he’s sure Naoto has been boycotting on sleep too.

There’s a frown that stitches its way on Yu’s face. The situation isn’t something that could be dealt with carelessly. If anything, if Yu’s not careful enough then a complete outsider might catch a backlash and he swears that he wouldn’t know what he’d do once that outsider becomes Yosuke.

The grip on the glass tightens and Yu breathes in. He won’t let it happen. He just can’t. He’s never dragging Yosuke into his job.

So right now, he needs to know of what Yosuke’s aware of. He needs to know that there’s absolutely nothing in this case that could be tied back to him. 

“Yosuke,” He calls and Yosuke hums in response. “You’ve been in Tokyo for quite a while now. Have you ever heard of the Phantom Thieves?” He has asked on Yosuke’s opinion of things back when the Investigation Team was still active and this isn’t anything different.

Yosuke blinks at the question and scoffs. “That’s a weird thing to ask. Of course I know them. At this age, who wouldn’t?”

“What do they actually do, exactly?” 

“What do they ---” Yosuke cuts himself off and brings his hand to his chin. “They steal hearts?” He says with a raised brow. “I’m not quite sure myself. It was years ago and there were just a bunch of these people who turned themselves in or confessed their crimes. All of them apparently received a calling card from the Phantom Thieves. Who knows how they did it, really? It could be blackmail or hypnosis and other people just think it’s some random occult thing-a-majing.”

That’s the only information Yu managed to scoop out of the internet too since he couldn’t access the official files just yet. There wasn’t anything that offered a lead on their methods or even their identities in general. Are they operating solely in Tokyo? Internationally? Yu had also come across on some mentions of a specific website used for “requests” for the thieves back in the day but right now there’s absolutely nothing of the sort --- not a single trace of it.

Yu chews the inside of his cheek. If it’s such an enigmatic group that’s teetering over the line of fiction then why would a killer call them out? What could possibly tie them together?

And for a second, Yu is taken back on that cafe the very moment he arrived in front of a frizzy haired man --- that’s right, Kurusu had mentioned the Phantom Thieves in their conversation too. The guy had brought up _supernatural methods_ and for some reason his heart stops and Izanagi’s voice starts whispering in his ears.

There’s television static taking over his head that switches over to the image of a blue room.

“Persona…?” He murmurs to himself and Yosuke tilts his head in confusion, unable to hear him. 

_Could it really be though? If that’s so then how did Kurusu…?_

Okay, calm down Yu. He thinks to himself. Kurusu mentioned nothing of personas and he shouldn’t be overthinking this early in the case.

“Yu?” Yosuke calls him with an unsure tone, his fingers making its way to snake around his wrist. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” Yu breathes out. “I just feel a little bad that I probably would spend nights out for the case…I’m sorry.”

Yosuke doesn’t buy it. Instead, a crease forms on his forehead and his eyebrows furrow. “Yu… Is this something serious?”

If there’s anything that Yu learned these past few years then it’s the fact that a look of worry does not suit Yosuke and the feeling that Yu’s the one source of his concerns leaves a bitter taste on his tongue. True, he’s thankful that his partner cares for him but he doesn’t like Yosuke being pushed back to deal with his lingering anxieties rather than something more important.

“No, of course not.” He hates lying. Especially to Yosuke. “I’ll be careful. So you don’t have to worry, okay?”

“Yu, I don’t…” Yosuke shakes his head, there’s a certain glassiness in his eyes that makes Yu’s chest ache. The brunet sucks in a shaky breath and his eyes close for a moment. Yosuke then turns back and sits there with his back facing Yu --- as if to mask the fright bleeding over his expression --- and his head falls back into his palms. “…I don’t want another call from a hospital.”

“Yosuke, no,” Yu places the glass on the counter and moves closer to Yosuke, his hands on the man’s shoulders. “That won’t happen, not again.”

Yosuke sighs roughly. His hand moves over to Yu’s and his grip tightens. “Just...Don’t overdo it, okay?”

Yu hums in response and then he encircles his arms around him, nestling his head on his partner’s shoulder, reassuring him that he’s here and he will always be here --- that Yu will never leave him. 

“Now let’s get that frown off your face.” Yu chuckles and he pokes on Yosuke’s face. “You’re less attractive with it, you know.”

Yosuke scoffs. “That’s a lie. I’m always attractive --- at least for you.” He replies with a grin on his face.

“You caught me red handed.” He nestles back on the crook of Yosuke’s neck. 

Yosuke laughs. “I really need to go now though.”

“Are your guests already there?”

“No but… they’re gonna be there at lunch but I need to keep myself busy or I think I’ll literally start throwing up.” Yosuke replies.

“Then stay for breakfast.” Yu suggests, tightening his embrace. 

“Yu ---”

“Please?” Yu looks up and meets Yosuke’s eyes. “Mornings are all I have with you.”

Yosuke opens his mouth and closes it again like he’s tripping on his thoughts before he sighs again and ruffles Yu’s hair. “I’m always spoiling you. You know that, partner?”

There’s a tug on the corner of Yu’s lips, he gives Yosuke a bright grin. “You love doing it anyway.”

Right then, Yosuke’s face is just like how he’d react when they were younger --- his cheeks are cherry red and his eyes immediately averts his gaze as he awkwardly chews on the inside of his cheek.

Yu will probably lose his nights to the case but he’s very much sure that he’d never exchange these mornings with anything else.

* * *

There’s nothing but blue lined with blurry hazes of black filling up his line of sight and for a while, Akira lays there on a cold wooden plank as he tries to catch his breath. He feels his heart beating rapidly in his chest as the sound reaches to his ears loud enough for them to actually ring. He grimaces, his hand moving immediately to his temple when an ache quickly drums its way into his skull.

He knows this place, maybe a little too well, Akira thinks. He brings himself to sit up and when his vision swims for a minute as he steadies himself, shutting his eyes and shaking his head with a hiss and curse under his breath. 

Akira tries to open his eyes but once the attempt is done, everything doubles out --- much like how a glitch duplicates texts with a messed up outline on a computer screen --- and a searing white light blinks, flashing pain over the right side of his head that Akira sews his eyelids back shut with an audible groan.

 _This is bad_ , Akira tries to breathe in as deeply as he can. _This is really bad._ He counts with every breath that he takes, trying to focus on something --- anything; the coldness of the room, the gross sweat on his skin, the way he thinks of the numbers appearing in his head --- other than this goddamn pain. 

He tries to remember what Ryuji says when Akira’s clawing the bed sheets and attempting to bite off his tongue when his skull seemed to blow off on difficult nights but the more he thinks, the more his head hammers. It has never gotten this bad --- at least not recently. His grip on his hair is tight and he’s sure he’s ripping off some strands but the burn of it seemed to be overpowered by whatever the fuck is going on inside his head.

Akira grits his teeth, he swears his other hand seems to be splintering the wood he’s sitting on and fuck, he just needs to calm the fuck down and _breathe._

Akira starts goes back to zero and recounts, this time as slowly as he could and the more he does, the more the pain subsides. His eyes sluggishly flutter open, the pain finally dulls and Akira feels the exhaustion in his bones.

He waits for the ache to leave and so he sits still for a moment, examining the chains hanging from the ceiling and the rusty bars making up a gate at the far side of the room. The light almost doesn’t reach his niche but the walls around him can still be seen in a very distinguished, familiar blue.

Akira somehow thought he’d hear it again --- _Welcome to the Velvet Room_ \--- but he doesn’t. 

He realizes that he’s back in his prison garbs when he sees the black stripes over his ruined sleeves but the chains around his wrists and ankle seemed to have disappeared and have been replaced by all too familiar bruises. He blinks at them, almost unfazed, and then turns his attention to the rusty bars blocking the entrance of his cell.

Shouldn’t those have disappeared? He remembers finally getting out of his cell when he fused Caroline and Justine back into Lavenza. 

When the pain leaves, he stands up, makes his way closer to the bars and then gasps. His mouth opens agape as his eyes widen up when he observes that the Velvet Room that he once knew had been torn into disarray --- the speakers are hanging from the ceiling, the chair where Igor once sat lies broken and splintered along with his table, the papers are scattered on the floor with a shattered lamp and the bricked floor seemed to be cracked and covered in webs.

There’s panic that rises over his throat. “Igor…?” He says to nothing and when he receives no answer, he shakes the bars roughly. “Igor!? Lavenza!?” 

His blood runs cold and the ache starts coming back. 

_What happened? What the fuck happened?_

The Velvet Room is supposed to be the state of his own heart. If that’s so then how did this happen? 

“I never thought you’d be jailed too.” Another gasp escapes from his lips and his head snaps to look up front. “You don’t seem like the guy who would settle on doing what others wanted by force.”

Akira feels like he had been frozen on the spot, as if he had been dropped in a sea of ice. His heart starts hammering in his chest and his grip on the bars tighten. The ache in his head is bad but he doesn’t close his eyes. He won’t do that --- he can’t. Not when the person inside the opposite cell is Akechi Goro.

Akechi is sitting in the middle nearest to his own caged rusty bars in black and white striped prison garbs. The same brown hair, the same brown eyes --- it really is Akechi Goro but for some reason he seems older. Akira really can’t tell from the distance but right there he really couldn’t care less about it. Akechi is right in front of him, after all these years he’s finally right in front of him speaking and _breathing_ that Akira himself forgets to do so.

Akira’s shocked daze continues and he trips up on his thoughts in a cloud of ache and confusion that he opens and closes his mouth like a gaping fish. What should he even say? For the first time he found himself at a loss for words. 

Akira knows he’s shaking and in truth he couldn’t believe it. He never shook like this in front of shadows nor did he do so in front of Yaldabaoth but the memory of being in that ship in front of a metal wall has never failed to make him feel so small.

Akechi scoffs once he sees this. “Who are you?”

“W-What?” Was the word that comes out of his mouth.

Akechi furrows his brows, he clicks his tongue in annoyance. “Kurusu doesn’t look like that. He doesn’t look at people with a face of a drowning cat. Pathetic.” He snickers, a twisted grin on his face; his mask of pleasantries stripped off of him. “Are you so surprised that this detective is appearing in front of you with some shitty magical trick?”

And the shock dissipated, his grip starts to loosen and at that single moment Akira sees Akechi and Akechi alone not the persona of a detective prince. In fact, this is the real Akechi; the one that hurt people because he got hurt himself.

“...I’m relieved.” Akira replies calmly. 

“What?” The smirk is wiped off of Akechi’s face.

“I’m relieved that you don’t have to act pleasantly in front of me anymore.”

Akechi scoffs. “As if that shit would ever work again. Or what? If I did I’d be able to kill you this time?”

“I never got to know this part of you.” Akira says and means it. He prevents himself from just pouring his thoughts over right there. He blocks the dam full of raging regrets and _I should have been there_ and _I should have listened_ and _I should have tried_ that threatens to break. There’s nothing but silence that comes after. He then sees Akechi gritting his teeth and he hits the bars hardly that the clang bounces off the walls.

“Don’t _bullshit_ me.” He seethes.

“Akechi---”

“Don’t fucking pity me. I don’t need it.” He fumes and says through his teeth. “Do you still think you’re some hero of justice? Do you really think that I’d bend to such words and _understand_ your attempt of trying to make friends with me?” Another scoff. “I think you’re a little too late for that, aren’t you?”

Akira sucks on a breath and feels as if he had been stabbed on the chest but he lets everything sink in because Akechi’s words are the truth. It is too late. He bites on his lip and it’s enough to draw blood, the metallic taste pooling on his tongue. 

Why didn’t he probe Akechi to open up before? Why didn’t he listen enough? Why didn’t he reach out when it could have been so easy at the right time? The thoughts start throwing themselves in his head and Akira realizes that everything just _hurts_. He’s too angry at himself that he feels the heat crawling up his skin and it’s forcing him to just _scream._

It’s his fault. He should have said something at that time --- he really should have. A gun to his head, a beaten up body; he should have said something to him. If he did then that goddamn thing in the ship would never have ---

“None of this is even real, Kurusu.” Akechi cuts off his thoughts with a bitter chuckle, his chin resting on his palm. “I’m dead.”

Akira stops breathing and the ringing in his ears is back. That’s right, Akechi’s dead. The doors had separated them in that ship, the gunshots echoed and Futaba had said he was gone; Akechi is dead.

The thought comes in his head singly --- a plague that drives all the other things in his head away. It rings awfully clear and he stops shaking.

_Akechi is dead._

The dead cannot speak, cannot come back. The Akechi he sees right now as well as this whole mess of a Velvet Room isn’t real. The haziness of the space, the cobwebs on the ceiling and the cell in front of him are just products of the years of yearning to bring back the hands of the clock to those days. 

But at the back of Akira’s head something is telling him not to care and Akira succumbs. He’d accept any version to speak with Akechi again.

Akechi is still smiling, the twisted grin devoid of any facade.

“...Then haunt me.” He murmurs.

“What?” Akechi lifts a brow.

“Then haunt me.” Akira repeats, louder, firmer. “Isn’t that what ghosts do?”

There's nothing after that and the dark colors all mix overlap each other like a sea of dirtied watercolor in his eyes until he finds himself back on a bed. Akira then wakes up in the attic in Leblanc with a splitting headache that goddamn hurts enough to knock him back out.

The second time he’s conscious, he forgets where he actually is. His body is sluggish and for some reason there’s a chill that wraps itself around his skin at the absence of his blanket. What’s even more surprising is that there’s something tickling his nose and there’s something soft poking his cheek.

“...Ryuji, there’s a spider in the room again.” He rubs his nose and calls out groggily but Ryuji doesn’t seem to hear it. “Ryu---”

“Just wake up already!” The voice is high pitched --- to high to be Ryuji’s and it’s accompanied by a quick scratch to his chest that Akira himself jolts upright, wide awake to see a cat on the bed in the attic in Leblanc.

“Morgana?” He says and Morgana seems to be a little pissed at him.

“Geez, did you actually forget that you slept over?” The cat replies and then sighs. “Boss tried to wake you up earlier but gave up.”

Akira blinks. That’s right, Futaba called him over and he lost track of time so he ended up staying. It’s too bright in the room, Akira realizes and he must have been in one hell of slumber if Sojiro gave up on waking him up.

“What time is it?” He rubs his eyes. He should probably take a quick breakfast and go straight to school.

“It’s a little past noon but ---”

“Aw, _shit._ ” Akira curses and he swears alarm bells are ringing in his ears when he jolts up , grabs his glasses and races to the bathroom to brush his teeth.

He’s late. He’s _so_ late.

* * *

By the power of the gods, the universe, aliens or whatever the hell is watching over him, he gets into class as a sweaty wheezing mess the moment the professor calls his name. Hifumi is already in front like she’s about to start off convincing the teacher that Akira’s definitely not playing hooky but has caught some kind of newly mutated strain of the flu.

“Lucky as always eh, Kurusu?” The professor clicks his tongue and ticks something off his attendance board. “Thought I’d finally catch a good student skipping class.” Hifumi goes back to her seat and Akira who’s breathless to even acknowledge that his feet are turning into jelly, bows to the teacher and drops himself ungracefully on an empty seat.

Hifumi is up front and for the first few minutes of the class, there’s an interval of glances coming from her. When Akira notices and meets her gaze, she mouths something in the lines of _Are you ready?_ , _Are you okay?_ , or _Cold bologna_ and Akira doesn’t know which so instead he offers her a smirk and a thumbs up despite of his sweaty appearance. He knows that it’s anything but charming but it’s enough for Hifumi to playfully roll her eyes with a smile before she pays attention back to class.

The teacher starts writing on the whiteboard and Akira starts to get his notebook when his phone vibrates with Futaba’s name on the group chat.

He takes a look in front, the professor doesn’t seem like he’s going to stop in drawing a graph midway so he takes the phone, unlocks it and views a number of chats that he had missed when he was running for dear life on the way to university.

There are a number of chats from Hifumi which mostly asked what excuse would she give if he were to actually be absent or late. He taps on the group chat and Futaba apparently sent a picture of Akira in a half worn hoodie and blazer with a toothbrush in his mouth. The picture also shows how his hands are haphazardly stuffing books in his bag and his glasses are askew. He may or may not have drool on his mouth.

> **[u want some drugs :3c]**
> 
> **superior gremlin:** ure not u when ure late   
>  **okay mom ill study:** is that… akira?  
>  **superior gremlin:** gee I wonder who else it could be  
>  **gremlin #2:** FUTABA   
>  **gremlin #2:** FUTABA ISTG  
>  **gremlin #2:** YOU WERE ALREADY IN SCHOOL WHEN I LEFT WHAT THE FUCK???  
>  **superior gremlin:** i have my ways. also morgana takes your blanket when you sleeafajhgarp;bg;ERFA  
>  **no more cheesecakes for ann:** okay could someone remind me to check for bugs when I get back to my dorm   
>  **no more cheesecakes for ann:** futaba scares me sometimes TTT  
>  **superior gremlin:** sorry about that the cat knew what i was typing  
>  **gremlin #2:** tell the cat that i won’t be giving sushi to him anymore if he keeps stealing my blankets when i’m at leblanc lol  
>  **superior gremlin:** he said he doesn’t need sushi from those who can’t afford shit   
>  **haru ceo of our hearts <3:** you brought mona-chan to school?  
>  **wreck your shit (but cant bc he actually soft):** I WAS IN A FUCKING MOVING EXAM I WAS FUCKING WORRIED AND I SEE THIS GROUP JUST SHITTING OUT  
>  **superior gremlin:** HEY WE AREN’T SHITTING OUT WE LOOKIN AT GOLD BITCCH  
>  **superior gremlin:** [attached a photo]  
>  **gremlin #2:** FUTABA STOP RESENDING THAT PIC  
>  **wreck your shit (but cant bc he actually soft):** i see that shit everyday that aint even the worst of it  
>  **gremlin #2:** RYUJI DON’T GIVE HER IDEAS  
>  **superior gremlin:** my dms are open send receipts  
>  **wreck your shit (but cant bc he actually soft):** sending  
>  **gremlin #2:** RYUJI YOU FUCKING TRAITOR 

  
“Kurusu,” Akira’s head moves towards the professor’s direction and the board is already filled with graphs and scribbles. The teacher scratches his head and he taps the marker on the table. “Care to answer the question?”

Akira blinks. What was the question? He swallows the lump on his throat and pushes his glasses back on the bridge of his nose.

“Uh,” He starts and he’s literally on the edge of just saying the first thing that comes out of his head until he recognizes the writings on the board. “Oh, Keynesian Economics.”

The professor sighs, almost disappointed and for a while Akira thinks that he might have gotten it wrong before the teacher replies. “That is correct. Sit down.” He says and the class literally whistles in awe as the smirk on Akira’s face widens before he takes his seat. “I could have sworn you weren’t listening.” Another rough sigh.

“Yeah, but it was Kurusu he called.” The student behind him whispers.

Another replies to him. “Pick another student to embarrass, Prof. Even if the guy was sleeping I bet he could answer.”

Apparently, the notes Hifumi gave him pushed him to read more on the future topics and in all honesty, studying it on his own provides more insight than the actual class.

He looks back on his phone again and notices Yusuke had entered the chat room.

>   
>  **[u want some drugs :3c]**
> 
> **futabas meme student:** I believe the picture just shows that no matter how chaotic the situation may be, Akira’s face would remain as picturesque as it is. I kind of admire the sheer panic on his expression lit up by the sun’s rays through the windows.   
>  **no more cheesecakes for ann:** count on yusuke for an automatic art critique  
>  **gremlin #2:** yo futaba your boyfriend just called me hot ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)  
>  **wreck your shit (but cant bc he actually soft):** ooooooooooooooooh ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)  
>  **superior gremlin:** no he didn’t!!  
>  **gremlin #2:** ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)  
>  **no more cheesecakes for ann:** ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)  
>  **haru ceo of our hearts <3:** ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)  
>  **futabas meme student:** I simply stated a fact that it would be hard to capture an angle that’s less charming on Akira.  
>  **gremlin #2:** lol look futaba he did it again ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)  
>  **okay mom ill study:** ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)  
>  **superior gremlin:** NOT YOU TOO MAKOTO  
>  **superior gremlin:** I HATE THIS FUCKING FAMILY (ꐦ ಠ皿ಠ )  
>  **superior gremlin:** ESP YOU INARI  
>  **futabas meme student:** Whatever did I do wrong?

Futaba sends a picture of a screaming Kermit the Frog and for a second Akira had to swallow back the laughs that were threatening to go up his throat. 

> **[u want some drugs :3c]**
> 
> **okay mom ill study:** but anyways get back to class especially you futaba  
>  **superior gremlin:** but makotooooo  
>  **okay mom ill study:** bringing a cat to school and chatting in class? you really shouldn’t follow akira  
>  **gremlin #2:** hey!  
>  **okay mom ill study:** yours were special circumstances  
>  **superior gremlin:** I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT  
>  **gremlin #2:** YEAH SHE CAN DO WHATEVER SHE WANTS!  
>  **okay mom ill study:** guys.  
>  **superior gremlin:** okay  
>  **gremlin #2:** yes ma’am.  
>  **haru ceo of our hearts <3:** also from what i heard isn’t kosei also stricter in their rules compared to shujin?  
>  **superior gremlin:** they can’t be strict if i can’t be cAUGHT  
>  **superior gremlin:** besides i didn’t go online just to meme  
>  **wreck your shit (but cant bc he actually soft):** yeah right  
>  **superior gremlin:** OH YEAH SKULL EAT THIS SHIT THEN  
>  **superior gremlin:** [attached a file]

Akira opens up the file and it’s a collection of images that feature a man with a bunch of women who seem to be forcing them to sign something on a piece of paper. He flips through the photos one by one and recognizes that this was Fuuga Sakuya, the man who was allegedly coercing women to get into illegal business in the underground such as being prostitutes. The police had apparently busted some branches all over Tokyo and now they’re trying to find the people responsible but couldn’t really find conducive evidence.

They may have given up their lives as Phantom Thieves but in truth, they really couldn’t sit by and let these shitty things happen especially when they don’t plan on stopping. They do what they could do to assist legal enforcement and they’ve collectively agreed to never take on targets that seem to be out of their league.

> **[u want some drugs :3c]**
> 
> **superior gremlin:** not a meme. i had some help from morgana and the npc on gathering these.  
>  **no more cheesecakes for ann:** disgusting.  
>  **haru ceo of our hearts <3:** so is this enough evidence for the police to accept?  
>  **okay mom ill study:** knowing them they’d still won’t take this. we don’t know what the women are signing or if he’s really blackmailing them.  
>  **wreck your shit (but cant bc he actually soft):** wait aint that guy supposed to be studying in todai? aren’t you and haru in todai????  
>  **haru ceo of our hearts <3:** we did look into him but apparently he isn’t in any class roster.  
>  **futabas meme student:** Makoto and I also checked the lists on other campuses. He wasn’t there either.  
>  **superior gremlin:** but get this, the npc and I did some searching and we found out something  
>  **no more cheesecake for ann:** you really need to stop calling mishima npc  
>  **superior gremlin:** thats not the point! anyways apparently fuuga actually studies in miraiyama in the business dept and is in uni up until 6  
>  **wreck your shit (but cant bc he actually soft):** wait for real!? the guy studies HERE??? IN MIRAIYAMA????  
>  **okay mom ill study:** if that’s so then akira and ryuji can check up on him  
>  **superior gremlin:** was kind of thinking we send someone as bait you know that way we can get a copy of a contract and a voice recording or something   
>  **wreck your shit (but cant bc he actually soft):** like how we talked to yusuke to get into madarame’s palace? dont we give these kind of jobs to ann?  
>  **no more cheesecake for ann:** i won’t be able to get into your campus anyway stupid.

Akira reads the chat after solving a problem on the board. Futaba has a point. If they’re going to persuade him to turn himself in then they’d need to get conclusive evidence of his deeds and then shove them to his face. The easiest way to do that would be sending bait who would voluntarily sign the contract that he has. 

He pushes his glasses back. He doesn’t have any more classes after this. He could very much seek out Fuuga if he really is in campus and so his fingers tap a message on the screen and he sends.

> **[u want some drugs :3c]**
> 
> **gremlin #2:** i’ll do something about it  
>  **no more cheesecake for ann:** hey wait! we don’t even know if he targets guys akira!  
>  **gremlin #2:** we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. leave this to me.  
>  **superior gremlin:** alright then! we’ll leave it to you leader!   
>  **gremlin #2:** i’ll inform you once it’s done  
>  **haru ceo of our hearts <3:** do be careful, akira.  
>  **wreck your shit (but cant bc he actually soft):** be there with you kira, my classes in the afternoon got canceled  
>  **wreck your shit (but cant bc he actually soft):** probably stop by the track club and then meet you on the usual spot yeah?  
>  **gremlin #2:** counting on you.  
>  **superior gremlin:** alright, now for my third objective since everyone’s online  
>  **superior gremlin:** i was thinking we should meet up again??? like personally??? at the same place???  
>  **no more cheesecakes for ann:** kinda rare for you to ask that futaba  
>  **futabas meme student:** She’s only indirectly saying that she misses all of you and she wants to eat out together. I suggest that if everyone is free tonight then we could have dinner together.  
>  **superior gremlin:** iNARI -  
>  **no more cheesecakes for ann:** aaaaaaaawwwwwww OKAY I’LL BE DOWN TONIGHT FOR FUTABA  
>  **haru ceo of our hearts <3:** I’m free too <3  
>  **wreck your shit (but cant bc he actually soft):** OH YEAH I’M DOWN!!  
>  **okay mom ill study:** I’ll be a little late but will definitely be there.  
>  **gremlin #2:** see you tonight then?  
>  **superior gremlin:** YOU GUYS (๑•̥̥̥́ω•̀ू๑)

The class ends a few more minutes after that and the professor collects his things with a tired face before he sprints up to the exit. The students start to chatter, getting up their seats and making plans on what to do in the afternoon while Akira makes his way to the front and taps on the table to get Hifumi’s attention who’s already fixing her bag but hasn’t risen from her seat.

“Hey,” He says. “Thanks for already stepping out trying to reason out with the professor there.”

Hifumi smiles. “It wasn’t much.”

Akira chuckles. “Oh, it was much. Your notes saved me from embarrassment from that question earlier.”

“Then maybe you can pay me back by not putting me in hot seat at the thought of you probably playing hooky in class.” Hifumi giggles, closing her bag and moving towards the exit with Akira following.

Akira gasps, feigning offense. “As if I’d actually play hooky in class, that’s quite a statement, Hifumi.” He says. “I got in class on time sweaty, wheezing and having breathing problems does that sound like playing hooky?”

Hifumi raises a brow. “Well to anyone who doesn’t know you then it might.”

“Okay, fair point.” Akira scoffs. 

Ryuji’s probably also done with his classes now. Akira probably thinks it’s okay to just wait for him ahead in the cafeteria.

“Hifumi,” He taps her shoulder and Hifumi hums in response. “Strategically would it be okay to just confront someone about a topic that might expose their misdeeds?”

Hifumi purses her lips. “Akira, is this another one?”

“Only the third this year, nothing that big.” He says as he waves a hand.

She sighs and stays silent for a moment before she responds. “Well as long as you’re sure that the guy you’re handling doesn’t have any more cards on his sleeve then you should be fine.”

There’s a smirk on Akira’s face. “What a coincidence. That’s what I was thinking too.”

* * *

Ryuji arrived in the cafeteria from the track club a few minutes after Akira got there. With not much time to waste, they started venturing in the campus for Fuuga Sakuya for more than an hour. In the middle of Ryuji’s complaints they actually manage to get a glimpse of him in the students’ lounge with a bunch of others who have been laughing hysterically at what Fuuga said.

Ryuji clicks his tongue. “That’s the dude right?”

Akira’s very much sure that he is. At this point in time, he’s certain that not many people of mediocre standing would actually torture their hair into bleaching it to much for it to turn into a grayish white. Sae could pull off the look and if he considers more then Lavenza’s strands almost have the same color but Fuuga’s make him extremely recognizable.

“What are ya gonna do? You said you’d talk to him right?” Ryuji asks.

“What else am I going to do? I’m probably going to start wooing him.”

Ryuji’s mouth hangs open along with his eyes before he trips on his words. “What the--- what -” He stammers. “What the _hell_ dude!?”

“Well we really don’t have that much of a choice do we?” Akira replies with a sigh. “This is the only time that we have and it would be pretty impossible to bring any of the girls in campus without a reason.”

“Dude, did you even read the file?” Ryuji raises a brow. “The guy doesn’t even recruit dudes.”

Akira shrugs. “I’ll manage.” He’s probably not attractive enough to be an idol but he’s been building up on his charm ever since high school to at least be enough for some people to turn their heads and talk to him. With the right words then he might be able to sway the guy too. 

He breathes in. In truth, he’d very much like to live out the rest of his life as Akira but a lot of moments had been pushing him to wear Joker’s mask ---- the man who feared nothing, who talked back to shadows and threatened them for money and the man who knew what to do at times of trouble.

Akira needs Joker right now and he needs to admit that without the Metaverse, it’s a little harder to do that but he manages to force him out anyway.

Ryuji massages the bridge of his nose, giving up on suggesting another plan that might work as well as what Akira laid out on the table. 

“Fine,” Ryuji sighs roughly. “If you’re gonna act then at least do better than Ann.”

“I’m telling her that tonight.” Akira chuckles.

“What the ---” Ryuji flinches at his comment. “Dude, no fair!”

“You ratted me out to Futaba so watch me rat you out to Ann.” He says with a smile full of mischief.

Another sigh escapes from Ryuji’s lips. “Fine.” He says. “Wait but didn’t Ann say she was shooting a commercial?”

 _Oh._ Akira thinks. _May the universe have mercy on the director._

“But anyways, since you’re acting what should I do?” Ryuji asks and Akira pats him on the back.

“Watch my back.” And Ryuji already understands.

Akira leaves one more pat on Ryuji’s shoulder and brings himself forward to where Fuuga is. The students’ lounge is spacious and apart from this rowdy group, there are a bunch of scattered sleep deprived students occupying the tables and the cubicles doing school work or simply tapping on their phones to buy time.

Fuuga doesn’t seem to notice him at first --- nor do his friends --- and Akira tries to move in the most sheepish manner than he could muster as he prepares the exact dialogue in his head. When he’s close enough, he lets out a soft voice.

“Um, excuse me.” He starts, the sound of his voice more composed but not overly confident to spark up trouble either. “You’re Fuuga Sakuya-san, aren’t you?”

Fuuga doesn’t really seem pleased with his presence. He scoffs and plasters an annoyed look on his face.

“Hey Saa-kun,” A girl in the group tugs on his sleeve. “Do you know this guy?”

“Not at all.” Fuuga replies, still eyeing on Akira.

Okay then, he’s an irritable one but considering the file Futaba had sent, Akira’s guessing that this guy enjoys preying on sheep so Akira keeps the act on.

“I…” Akira avoids his gaze and plays with his fringe, feigning nervousness. “I heard you offer jobs that… pay well.” His voice is low and shy but he doesn’t forget to put sly emphasis on the last two words.

The other people on the group seem to be unaware of whatever the hell Akira’s talking about but the same expression of confusion isn’t painted on Fuuga’s face. Great, he could probe into it more.

“I really need a job right now and I kind of… need the cash.” Akira continues, eyes moving to stare at his feet.

Fuuga clicks his tongue. “I ain’t offering jobs now scram.” He says with a raised voice.

_Okay, that actually makes him sound more suspicious._

Akira takes in a shaky breath, with shaking fingers, he starts removing his glasses and wipes the lenses with the cloth of his blazer. His eyes start making glances on an interval as he says: “T-They said you only hire women though.” He starts and he manages to see Fuuga’s eyebrow twitch. “But I-I really need the money so can’t you um… make an exception?”

The silence blankets them for quite a while. From Akira’s fidgeting fingertips to his figure and then his face, Fuuga’s eyes scan them in a very roundabout manner that it’s starting to make Akira anxious for real. A few minutes after, a grin forms on Fuuga’s face before he makes his way closer to Akira and whispers.

“Let’s go somewhere private then…?”

Akira tries to suppress a laugh.

Fuuga then turns back to his friends with a smile. “Go on ahead guys. I’ll introduce this guy to someone first.”

He hangs his arm around Akira’s shoulders and forces him to move at his pace. As they do, Akira takes a quick glimpse at where Ryuji is, nodding slightly before looking ahead.

Fuuga brings him to a lone kiosk at the back of the campus that’s invaded by unkept garden vines. The gray haired man just takes out his wallet in which Akira notices holds a few cigarette sticks. He takes one out and lights one with lighter from his pocket and puffs out a cloud of smoke.

“Want one?” Fuuga extends his hand holding the wallet, offering a cigarette. 

Akira shakes his head. “No thanks, I don’t really smoke.”

Fuuga clicks his tongue. “Better get used to it. Lots of patrons smoke while they do it with you.”

Akira hums and tilts his head to the side. If he needs to get evidence then he needs to act dumb.

Fuuga rolls his eyes and grabs a piece of paper from his bag and throws it across the stone table. “You don’t even what you’re getting yourself into?” He snorts. “You really sure you want this job? If you can’t handle shit then piss off!”

“No, I…Fuuga Sakuya-san, this is…” Akira moves the paper closer to him and then reads the contents. It’s true; it’s a contract between Fuuga Sakuya and the worker which mostly discusses the secrecy of the job from the cops. Akira had predicted that it might be it but what he didn’t really expect was a rule that states that snitches would have their families dragged down into the scenario. “I’m… selling my body?”

Akira’s tone is even more sheepish that it dies at the end. The sound seems to satisfy Fuuga and he takes a few steps towards Akira before lifting his chin up to meet his face. 

“Not bad. You _are_ pretty. Shame that you aren’t a gal.” He turns Akira’s face from right to left while he laughs, inspecting every space of skin and at this point, a small tempting voice just tells Akira to spit on this guys face. “Lose the glasses when you work though. It’s a turn-off.” He snickers. “But you actually came at the right time. They’ve been trying to get a male worker for quite some time but we couldn’t find some that fit the requirements. You would do just fine.”

He throws Akira to his side by his chin and the force is enough for him to stumble a little bit. “I get about half of what you make though but that ain’t important ain’t it? All you have to do is to let them touch you and give some of the cash to me and then you run along and keep the rest. Ain’t a bad deal.”

Akira wants to smack the guy’s teeth off of his face.

“Unless you’re too much of a wuss to do it then---”

“I can’t do it, I shouldn’t have--”

“Just sign it.” Fuuga says it high enough to sound threatening and Akira pretends to coil back. He takes a pen from his bag and signs the contract which undoubtedly brings a smile to Fuuga’s face.

“Wow at one order? Now that’s what I call dedica---”

“And now you can turn yourself in to the police.” Akira cuts him off again, his voice now solid and firm when he stares at Fuuga dead in the eye.

“What did you say…?” Fuuga hisses and Akira thinks that’s pretty much a normal reaction.

Akira scoffs. “Turn yourself in. Confess.” He says as if trying to make the words obvious enough to understand. “The police have been searching for collaborators in this case aren’t they? I bet there’s enough evidence to make sure that you’re involved in ruining the lives of dozens of women who didn’t want to have this job in the first place.”

He raises the contract and waves it in front of him. “You probably keep these when they sign them but you never really expected that I’d wave one in front of your goddamn face and tell you to confess now while you still can right?”

Fuuga seethes and just lunges forward towards him with a hand making an effort to grab the paper but Akira swiftly dodges it before the gray haired man makes another attempt.

“As if that piece of crap can do anything!” He says through his teeth. “Who says that another person couldn’t have put my name there to pin me!?”

There’s nothing but fury on Fuuga’s face. The smug and cheeky expressions he had had morphed into fire searing over his features with his eyes wide and his mouth gritting over his teeth as he heaves. He throws his bigger frame haphazardly on Akira, lunging at him but not to grab on the sheet of paper anymore but Akira moves skillfully to his right before Fuuga turns his heel. Immediately, his hand forms swiftly into a fist and force propels through his arm towards the direction of Akira’s face.

“Fucking _quit it_ , you bastard!” A scream tears a rip through the tense atmosphere and a fist is shaking an inch away from Akira’s face as Ryuji grabs the guy’s wrist while he pushes back. 

Fuuga seems slightly surprised but his brows furrow even more. “And who the fuck are you!?”

Ryuji clicks his tongue and pushes Fuuga roughly for him to stumble back. He then lifts up his phone to show the screen at him, showing that his phone had been recording for quite some time which happens to be too long to not involve his conversation with Akira.

“Y-You!” Fuuga curses at the phone and Ryuji immediately keeps it.

“I think that’s enough evidence ain’t it?”

“You fucking _bastards_.”Fuuga fumes.

Akira sighs roughly. “Look,” He starts, scratching the back of his head. “Confessing right now would mean lightening your sentence. If you don’t want to then fine, don’t. But you gotta realize that you’re still going to be caught sooner or later and if not then this whole shit show you have been doing will get back at you tenfold.” He snickers and lifts the contract again. “You could also look at it this way, you now understand that it’s this easy for someone to gain evidence on you and rat you away.”

“And selling girls to sex dens man? That’s fucking bullshit!” Ryuji adds, stomping a foot. 

“Whatever it is you’re doing this for,” Akira continues, folding the contract and keeping it in his pocket. “It will never be worth it. Nothing good will come from hurting others.”

Fuuga scoffs and murmurs something under his breath that Akira hears anyway. “Some bullshit way of thinking.” He says, his eyes lowered. “Just see, I’ll fucking find those Phantom Thieves and show them ---”

“Phantom Thieves…?” The words come out carelessly out of Akira’s mouth and Fuuga flinches before he sucks up a breath. He grits his teeth again, grabs his bag on the chair and runs off without another word.

“Hey we’re not done ---”

“It’s okay, Ryuji.” Akira cuts Ryuji off when he starts to chase after him. 

Ryuji furrows his brows. “You sure? That bastard got away!”

“We did what we could.” He sighs roughly, dropping back on the stone seat. “The best outcome would be he stops whatever he’s doing whether he confesses or not. That’s the main thing we focus on, right? Whatever happens after this would be the police’s job.”

“And the evidence? Do we turn them in?” Ryuji asks.

Akira shrugs at the question. “The contract can be accepted but we only recorded the whole thing so Fuuga stops on his tracks on doing what he does since he’s obviously unaware that it’s unlawful recording. I don’t think the police would accept it. Maybe we should talk about this with others later but for now, we did what we could.” He repeats.

Ryuji doesn’t seem all that satisfied with how things turned out but in the end, his expression softens and Akira pats him on the back.

“Come on,” He says. “We’re meeting the others, right?”

That seemed to be enough to bring a smile back on their faces.

* * *

It’s mid-afternoon when Yu enters the police station to meet Naoto and when he does, his suspicions of her boycotting on sleep had been on spot when he catches his friend on one of the cubicles arranging images with a cup of coffee in hand. 

The station is busy. A bunch of officers have been answering calls in their own spaces and another is convincing two people on settling a case or something rather than bringing it to court. Yu maneuvers himself to where Naoto is sitting and he sees various sheets and pictures scattered on her table.

“And that’s your what? Second cup of coffee?” Yu’s voice makes Naoto jolt, making her let go of the image she’s holding and it makes Yu a little guilty for surprising her. He picks up the photo from the floor and places it on her table. “Sorry about that, I didn’t mean to startle you.”

Naoto shakes her head. “No, it’s not your fault, Senpai.” She laughs. “It’s the coffee… it’s my third cup.”

That _cannot_ be healthy. At the course of this investigation he should at least managed to convince Naoto to get some shuteye.

“Oh, here are the rest of the files.” Naoto reaches out for a bulky case folder and gives it to Yu.

“Are the autopsies and forensic tests also here?” Yu opens up the folder and starts scanning through the pages.

Naoto purses her lips and shakes her head. “Not all of them. Not yet.” She says with a sigh, arranging the images she has on the table. “I kinda feel bad for snapping at Nishimiya earlier since he wasn’t able to get them.”

Yu tilts his head. “He forgot to do so?” He asks, remembering a young man trying to keep his vomit on his stomach under the rain. 

“No,” Naoto lets out a breath, leaning into the back of her chair. “The doc in charge of the autopsies thought he was just a kid and not an officer so he wouldn’t give it to him so I sent Nishimiya back.”

Yu holds off from laughing but Naoto notices and rolls her eyes. In silence, he starts to read further on the files.

So far, some murders have been announced due to the people who found the bodies and some are kept confidential until the police orders out a statement in order to prevent panic in the public. For Yu, he thinks it’s a wise decision for the police to keep some things secret at first especially since the ties to the murders are loose to the point that they can’t be solidly connected. 

But of course, that can’t be done forever. There are four victims already and he’s sure it’s enough to make an official announcement.

The very first victim hadn’t been announced yet and was identified as Shinomiya Fuyuka, a third year female student at Kosei High School who was found dead in her closet. Her face was torn off and her head was cleanly cut away from her body but it was placed grotesquely on her hands as if to give an illusion of her holding it. Aside from that, her chest had been exposed and her heart had been taken away. There also were various burns and contusions around her body but it’s unclear as to what caused them. She was found by her mother on her first day of school at seven in the morning. The bloodstains in her closet suggested that she had been dead for a few hours which could only mean that she was murdered the night before.

The thing that’s picking up on Yu’s nerves with this case is that Shinomiya’s room --- and the whole house in general --- had no evidence of forced entry and the only person who was living with her was her mother who was also oddly out staying in Nagoya the night of the murder for work. This alibi had been proven by a witness and there are tickets purchased by Shinomiya’s mother herself that coincide with the indicated date.

If that’s the case then the only person who could have murdered Shinomiya would be someone she voluntarily let inside the house.

The last part of Shinomiya’s file was a calling card found stuck in between her teeth.

_Her heart has been stolen, Phantom Thieves._

“It’s the same as the other one, huh.” Yu whispers to himself at the memory of a calling card in his hand last night.

Two weeks later, Tanaka Yuji was found in the canals of his neighborhood. He was a forty year old salary man and unlike the other two murders, his head wasn’t cut off but his face was torn regardless. Multiple bones were crushed and it must have been due to the act of stuffing him in the narrow canals. His chest was also opened up, revealing an absent heart but that wasn’t the only hole-like wound found in his body --- there had been dozens of different sizes that resemble gunshots but upon close observation, they look too inconsistent and ragged to be done by a gun. There wasn’t much evidence collected but he was found by a resident of the area.

A calling card was stuck to his teeth --- _His heart has been stolen, Phantom Thieves._

After a four days, the third victim was found. Kiyama Jun was a medical laboratory scientist at a small medical plaza and was found in an area used for disposed chemicals. The position of his body was like that of Shinomiya’s --- his head cut off and placed in his hands and his heart gone. Unlike Shinomiya, however, he wasn’t covered in burns but parts of his flesh had started to fall off and decompose despite the fresh bloodstains found in the room. Furthermore the last sighting of Kiyama was the night of the murder itself since he was the one assigned for the night shift in the lab. 

Much like the others, Kiyama had the same calling card stuck between his teeth.

There hasn’t been a file for the victim last night but so far, Yu can’t sew a definite pattern on the killer’s way of choosing victims. Age groups don’t seem to be followed and there’s absolutely no proven connection between the people in the files. Well, at least not yet. In truth, he really can’t deduce anything right now, not when he hasn’t seen all the forensic tests and lists of possible suspects.

“We’re trying as hard as we can to come up with a list of suspects.” Naoto interjects on his thoughts. “We’re digging up on their backgrounds, relations, interactions --- everything. But what’s odd with every single damn case is that we can’t find any tracks or fingerprints; nothing! Which is why forensics is having a hard time looking into all the things found in the scene just to get a single piece of DNA or just a drop of blood from the killer.”

Naoto frustratingly finishes her coffee and puts it back harshly on her table that the paper cup folds. “As for the calling card…”

“The Phantom Thieves.” Yu sighs. “Does that mean that the killer personally knows them?”

“It’s that or the killer’s just provoking them.” Naoto replies. “In truth that stupid calling card’s just making everything way too complicated that I’m afraid how the public would react once it finally gets announced. They were just… a whole frenzy back in the day or so I’ve heard.”

“Yosuke said the same thing about them.” Yu says. “I searched through the net and all but I really couldn’t find anything reliable.”

Naoto taps on the table in a very unclear rhythm. She leans in forward again and grabs a set of other folders from her stack and moves it over to Yu’s. They’re thinner, Yu observes and if he compares it with the bulk of case files then it might as well be a speck of information.

“These are all the things I could find out regarding the Phantom Thieves.” Naoto says, opening one of the folders which show their targets and their respective calling cards. “For some reason they’re hard to access and I couldn’t get them without the permission from the prosecutor's office.”

No wonder Naoto took off for that place last night then but the whole statement makes Yu lift a brow in confusion. “The prosecutor’s office?” He starts. “Not special investigations?”

“Nope.” Naoto says, the last syllable popping off her lips. “Which brings me to open up another mystery.”

She lifts up a photo for Yu to see and for a while, Yu’s just there; dumbfounded with his mouth slightly agape as she sees a picture of Shibuya under a red sky with what seems to be rib cages rising over in between the skyscrapers in an almost nightmarish fashion.

“P-Photoshop?” He stammers and Naoto’s tired frown suggests otherwise.

“I would wish.” She says. “This was taken by a colleague of mine who celebrated 2016’s Christmas Eve with her boyfriend. I found a bunch of their pictures and every single one of them had this scenery. When I asked her about it, she said there was nothing peculiar going on with the photos.”

Yu would like to meet this friend of hers and ask if bones as large as infrastructures and Satan’s blood on the clouds would be considered not peculiar.

“I thought it was only her but when I asked other people, they’d say the same thing. That the pictures were… normal.” Naoto continues and Yu tries not to lose his shit.

“Those are anything but normal, Naoto.” He replies.

“But you see it too right, Senpai? The sky and the bones and the red rain?” Yu nods at her question. “Apparently, from my investigations, this was the last sighting of the Phantom Thieves before they disappeared into thin air.”

The scenario was all too familiar --- the mystery regarding unsolvable cases, the supernatural objects and the stories that were too unbelievable. This was too much like Inaba, at least just loosely. For some reason, he couldn’t get Kurusu out of his head.

“Persona.” He says and it’s enough to stop Naoto from returning the picture to her heap of files. 

“...Senpai…?”

“Do you think the Phantom Thieves were involved in it? Persona?” He says it lowly in the business of the station, as if to prevent anyone from listening in.

Naoto stays silent for a moment and she tucks a few strands of her hair behind her ear. “I’ve thought about that too.” She whispers back. “I considered calling Kirijo-san about it but their organization wouldn’t really be able to offer us help until we actually prove that they’re involved in it.” Her fingers start fidgeting on the edges of the photographs while she avoids Yu’s gaze. “That’s why I need to propose something to you, Senpai.”

Naoto has a point. Kirijo wouldn’t really be that much of help if they don’t have enough proof. Furthermore, if the odds are against them and the Phantom Theives aren’t really individuals with personas then they’d be wasting Kirijo’s time and everything would all be considered as a wild goose chase for the Phantom Thieves.

“And that is?” He asks and Naoto chews on her bottom lip.

“We have evidence that the Phantom Thieves do exist and there are a number of people who know them. If that’s the case then it’s our duty to put them under protection regardless of their methods since technically they could be possible targets for these murders considering the calling cards.” Naoto starts, putting the photo back on the table and when Yu flips the next page, he couldn’t help but freeze. 

“The people involved are…”

Naoto takes in a sharp breath. “At some time in November, the police had managed to catch their leader.” She says. “There are only three people who could speak up in the case of the Phantom Thieves. The first is Niijima Sae who managed to get an interrogation with their leader, the second is Akechi Goro who is still currently missing and the third is ---”

“...Kurusu Akira.” Yu reads the name on the file under a picture of a younger Kurusu staring right back at him without his glasses and in a uniform that Yu had seen from around the city. “The leader of the Phantom Thieves.”

“Niijima Sae isn’t interested in talking. I’ve tried to open up the topic and she shut down all the questions that I’ve been meaning to ask and without proper permission, I couldn’t really probe.” Naoto massages the bridge of her nose in frustration. “But Kurusu,” She purses her lips. “I’d never really expected that it would be him.” She shakes her head. “He was a second year at Shujin Academy who was serving probation until his criminal record was lifted due to some false testimonies in the first trial and now he’s studying political science in Miraiyama University.”

“You want me to reach out to Niijima and Kurusu to gain information about the Phantom Thieves and their relation to these murders.” Yu says when he closes the file.

There’s a small smile of concern on Naoto’s face. “If it so happens that they could summon personas then the murder cases right now might not be as normal as we think.”

“But if you have these then why hasn’t the police gone over to him yet?” Yu asks. If the Phantom Thieves should be subjected to the protection of the police then why haven’t they made a move to make contact with Kurusu?

Naoto rests her cheek on her palm. “The higher ups won’t allow it. For some reason, the police had been shying to make contact with Kurusu to “avoid making a scene” and whatever that is, I don’t know.” She replies, quoting some words with her fingers. “Undoubtedly, something more happened between the police and Kurusu other than him being captured and interrogated. From what I know, Kurusu even signed a confession provided by the cops upon his capture but for some reason, the court wouldn’t even take it as evidence.”

“So since I’m not technically a cop, I can speak to Kurusu without “making a scene”?” Yu asks, imitating Naoto’s quotations with his own fingers.

She chuckles tiredly. “I hope it isn’t too much for you to do. In truth, I still doubt if Kurusu would even talk to me if I say that I’m investigating the Phantom Thieves. He’d probably listen to you.”

Yu chuckles back. “As I said, this is work. It isn’t too much.” He replies. “I guess I’ll leave you to the murder investigations then?”

“We’ll exchange information. We still need to help each other out after all, it’s faster that way.”

Yu smiles at her. He’s relieved that Naoto knows how to put her trust in her comrades now. If it makes investigations faster, then that means he’ll have to gather more information about Kurusu. He needs to study up on various things --- Kurusu’s behavior, his relationships, his backgrounds and maybe he could even ask some insights from the people close to him.

There’s a bitter taste on Yu’s mouth and it’s the type that leaves out a guilty aftertaste unlike the coffee he had with the man. A lump forms on his throat when he scans over his contacts on his phone.

He’d have to apologize to Kurusu. He may not be able to offer a leisurely chat over coffee.

* * *

Akira always forgets that the diner they used to go often had been renovated and he keeps tripping on the last step of the stairs that obviously wasn’t there before back when he was in high school. It gained him a few chuckles and giggles but no way in hell are they going to stop him from pretending that none of that ever happened.

“Looking cool, Joker?” Morgana starts to laugh at him in between his meows inside Futaba’s bag and Akira has never been this tempted to button mash on his head just to mess with him.

“Shut up, nothing happened.” Akira mutters but it doesn’t prevent Morgana from laughing more until Futaba covers the cat’s mouth before pushing him further into the bag.

“Shush, kitty!” Futaba says, looking over to the waitress and giving her an awkard smile before she leaves. “You may have forgotten that animals aren’t welcome here.”

The gang is pretty much assembled minus Makoto and Ann. Futaba starts a kind of mini fight of rock-paper-scissors with Morgana --- which includes a lot of bickering --- and Akira’s not sure how that works when all Morgana could give out in each round would be a paw. Haru is cheering on for the cat which of course, sets of a betrayal dialogue from Futaba that Akira recognizes as a few mixed up lines from Star Wars.

Ryuji’s already talking with Yusuke, asking if he actually ate lunch once he sees how busy the guy is on stuffing his cheeks with steak. They managed to get a spacious table so whatever kind of shenanigans that awaits them later would likely happen.

Ann arrives a few minutes later, her hair down and her face almost concealed by some shades that’s almost as big as her head and a black mask that makes her look like she’s ready to rob a bank.

“Whoa, what the hell!” Ryuji stops on mid-sentence on his conversation with Yusuke the moment his eyes find Ann.

“Stop exaggerating!” Ann smacks Ryuji on the shoulder as she removes her shades and lowers her mask before she sits next to him. “It’s not like I actually want to wear these!”

“What do you mean exaggerating? You totally looked like a fly a second ago!” Ryuji bursts out laughing and its enough for Ann to puff out her cheeks and this time, she smacks his face.

“Ow!” Ryuji rubs his cheek. “Man, you gotta tone down on the violence. You’re gonna make me lose my teeth.”

Ann sticks her tongue out to him and reaches for the menu. “Maybe if you start acting nice, I’d stop.”

“It’s hard being a model everyone recognizes. At this point, I’m just happy to be another person in school.” Futaba comments with a shudder, probably remembering the times when Ann would just flat out change numbers after people would randomly text her and claim to be fans.

“I don’t really know if I should be happy or not.” Ann sighs. In truth everyone’s proud of her for reaching big in the industry. She got her big break after getting a cover page for a fashion magazine and she’s been in demand for commercial shoots recently. “I kind of miss going out on the streets without looking ridiculous.”

A few moments later, Makoto arrives breathless from possibly running all the way to the venue. “I’m sorry I’m late!” She says as she approaches the table in between wheezes. “Oh God, I’m so sweaty.”

“Don’t worry, I was worse in the morning.” Akira says and she chuckles a bit before sitting next to Haru.

“You know, after seeing that photo Futaba sent in the chat, I’ve been considering on asking Akira to model for me.” Yusuke says after he swallows a bite of his steak. “Apparently our professor wishes us to explore the magnificent tones of a man’s body and I’ve been searching for someone who could reach such a high level of beauty.” He adds, dropping his fork and framing Akira’s face.

Ann whistles and shakes her head. “Bad memories.”

“You’re saying that meeting _Yusuke_ was a bad memory?” Ryuji asks.

“I said what I said! The pressure was real!” Ann retorts.

Modelling has never really crossed Akira’s mind before. He always thought that he wouldn’t be suited for it but if it’s for Yusuke then he guesses he wouldn’t mind. For all he knows, Yusuke could make him more charming in the canvas than he is in real life. 

“You want me to strip too, Yusuke?” He asks cheekily but he never expected Yusuke’s eyes to actually glow.

“What!? You’d be willing to?” He asks and everyone starts to burst out in laughter, leaving Yusuke still expectant of an answer.

There’s a smirk forming on Akira’s lips and he manages to side eye Futaba. “Hey, your boyfriend’s cheating on you.”

“Oh, you can keep him.” Futaba replies as she puffs her cheeks but the act only makes Yusuke frown before he pinches Futaba’s cheek. “Never mind!” She says, encircling her arms around Yusuke’s figure. “You can’t have him! Get your own Inari.” She says as she sticks out her tongue while Yusuke pats on her head.

Akira raises his hands, giving up on the teasing. “Never in a million years. Keep your artist.”

Ann passes the menu to Makoto while this happens and for a moment as she scans through the food, she says: “Oh, that reminds me, you can order any dessert you’d like. It’s one me! My boss from my part time job gave me a lot of extra since it was my last day at work.”

The group collectively cheer in awe and Ann’s already requesting for another menu to choose a cake. 

“That’s a double treat! Inari’s also treating for meals today!” Futaba says, clapping her hands. “He won this exhibition thingy and when I saw the check I had to count the zeroes while he was wondering how much beansprouts he could have when he could buy the whole store!”

Well, at least Akira’s not spending anything more for this day. 

“It’s a shame we couldn’t come by. I would have loved to see your works at that exhibition.” Haru says.

“Eh,” Akira shrugs at the comment. “It was a private exhibition so only invited art bigwigs get to go. We couldn’t have seen the real thing even if we wanted to.”

“I did!” Futaba offers a peace sign with her hand as a grin sneaks onto her face. “I bugged Inari’s phone and managed to see everything!”

“Bugged with permission, of course.” Yusuke adds.

“Yeah, but aside from Yusuke, I gotta ask. Why’d you quit your job, Makoto? Thought that shit paid well?” Ryuji asks.

Makoto slides the menu back and calls for a waitress. “Well, be having this immersion program next week. I was sent to observe operations in the city police so I was thinking that would mean more work. I couldn’t possibly balance classes and that thing with a job.”

Haru’s katsudon arrives and she thanks the waitress before she leaves. “So does that mean you’ll be in the police station for a while, Mako-chan?”

Makoto sighs with a nod. “I was hoping I’d get to observe under the prosecutor’s office or something. That way I could probably help Sis but the slots were all taken. I mean, there’s nothing bad with helping out the police but sometimes they could be… well…” Her voice dwindles and for a while Akira notices her taking short glances at him before she stops.

“Dicks?” Ryuji roughly finishes her sentence. His voice is loud and it makes heads from other tables turn. Ann, sighs roughly and shakes her head but she doesn’t reprimand him.

“I was going to say unpredictable.” Makoto replies and Ryuji snorts.

“Come on, it’s not a crime to say some of them are assholes.” Ryuji adds.

“But aren’t we a little too passive-aggressive with the police?” Ann comments, her finger twirling some strands of her blonde hair. “I mean, we are trying to make people confess to them if possible.”

Yusuke finishes the rest of his steak. “I believe the goal was for them not to repeat their misdeeds and not necessarily confess to the police.”

The table falls into silence and for a while their eyes lower to the table, unsure on what to say before Morgana comes right out of the bag and lands his front paws to the wood.

“But speaking of the police, how’d it go with Fuuga?” He turns to Akira and Ryuji.

“Oh, yeah. You did say you were gonna handle it after your classes.” Futaba says.

“I think we did enough. He’s aware that what he’s doing is wrong and I think he never really expected me to just rub it on his face.” Akira says, remembering the morphed features on Fuuga’s expression before he dashed away. “I’m a little worried about something he said though.”

“Something he said?” Makoto asks.

Ryuji blinks at him for a while and looks up, as if replaying the whole scene in his head before he jolts and brings himself to stand up so suddenly that the table shakes. “Shit, that’s right!”

“Ryuji, sit down!” Ann pulls on his jacket and forces him to sit.

“That bastard said something about us!” Ryuji says back and Ann lets go of him.

“He said he was looking for the Phantom Thieves before he left.” Akira adds.

Haru giggles. “It’s kind of weird that he said that to you of all people.”

“For real! That asshole doesn’t even know shit.” Ryuji chuckles.

True, if he looks at it simply then it would just imply that there are a few people who still believe that the Phantom Thieves are operating and he should be a little relieved that he’s not even identified as one. But for some reason, Akira couldn’t get the look in Fuuga’s eyes as he seethed the moment he dropped the topic on the Phantom Thieves.

It doesn’t sound like a joke.

“Futaba,” Akira calls and his voice makes Futaba flinch. 

“Y-Yes?” She stammers.

“You’ve been quiet for a while.” He says with a sigh. “Did you and Mishima find something while you were looking into Fuuga?”

Futaba fidgets with her fingers and then she removes her glasses before she wipes it with a table napkin as she avoids his eyes. “No, it’s…”

“Futaba?” It’s Makoto this time, her voice soft and concerned. 

Futaba takes in a breath and she puts her glasses on before she steadies her hands. “I didn’t really want to open it up now. At least not yet when I haven’t looked into it.”

“Is it true then…? About people looking for the Phantom Thieves?” Ann asks grimly.

Futaba chews on her lip. “…In school, you know… Kosei’s pretty low on population so rumors travel a bit fast. A girl from another class went missing for quite a while now and apparently a lot of people who know her said that she was looking for the Phantom Thieves before she went, you know… poof.”

“Isn’t that just a coincidence then?” Ryuji lifts up a brow but his tone is low. “I mean, I could be looking for Akira before I go poof but that doesn’t mean that would be reason why I’d go poof.”

“That’s what I thought too but the NPC and I went over Fuuga’s activities and he was active on this forum made out of people who used to be active in the Phan-Site and I saw that girl’s account!” Futaba takes her phone and starts tapping on the screen. When she stops, she lays the phone down on the table.

It’s a small forum with only a few members but it’s composed of threads all relating to the Phantom Thieves and if Akira doesn’t look closely, he might even consider it as another Phan-Site.

“I ran some bg checks on the other accounts here as well and…” Futaba’s voice dissipates and for some reason, all of them understand what she’s trying to say.

“People have been going missing in search of the Phantom Thieves?” Akira muses.

For a moment there’s nothing but silence with only the idle chatter and the clinking plates cutting it up from the table next to them. Futaba scrolls further down the forum and clicks on a specific post that had the most number of views --- it’s a single photo with text on a white background.

> **To those who yearn for justice;**  
>  We are reaching out to the people who have hit the very bottom of the well of life. There is nothing to fear for we know of the path to the Phantom Thieves that you are desperately seeking. We are ready to extend our hands to those who are worthy of their help.
> 
> We are a group of individuals who know of their true nature and righteous methods. We are no cult nor are we involved in any illogical practices that sully the Phantom Thieves’ good name. The chance to gain their power is at arm’s reach if you are up for it. You will have your emancipation --- you will have your justice.
> 
> Ask and it will be given, seek and you will find. We have provided you everything that you will need.
> 
> We hope to see you at the next stage.

Ryuji howls so loud that Ann forcefully wraps her mask around his mouth to shut him up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're read this far, thank you so so much!
> 
> The plot takes place a few years after p5 so that means there's really a whole lot of time that passed for the people in p4 which is why I wanted Yu and Yosuke's relationship to be more domestic ~~and like that of a married couple~~ since they've been together romantically for quite some time. I also think that it's Yu who would initiate acts of affection first rather than Yosuke because _bitch_ Yosuke is such a soft and awkward bean I want to hug him too :<
> 
> For Akira and the thieves, I don't think they'd spend all their free time together everyday since of course, they're in different schools and programs that I doubt they'd manage to keep track of everyone's schedules though they do meet up when they can. Online interactions are probably more common for them. Also, regarding Futaba, I know canon probably says that she's going to attend Shujin but in this fic, she goes to Kosei currently as a third year since she had a one year delay. To be honest, I doubt Sojiro would send his daughter to Shujin once he reflects on how Akira's school experience went with all the ill rumors and that thing with Kamoshida. I saw in other fics that Kosei is termed as an expensive school but if that happened to be true then I doubt Futaba would have a hard time acing a scholarship test since she's already smart as she is.
> 
> Anywaaaaaays, I hope all of you are enjoying the story so far and of course, comments are appreciated and all see you all there <3
> 
> If you want to talk about persona then you can hit me up on twitter too! (@rimacchiis)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akira and the rest of the Phantom Thieves find more clues regarding the missing people pursuing them, Yu realizes that if Kurusu isn't made out of blood then it's definitely coffee.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Again, thank you so much for the positive response last chapter! I'm so happy that you guys are enjoying the story so far. This update is a little late since I had to confirm some things regarding the clues but it's here now! This 12k chunk of a chapter is finished for you to read. Akira and Yu get to finally start their respective investigations! It's going to be a long ride :>
> 
> Anyways, stay safe during quarantine and I hope you enjoy this chapter. Again, I have no beta for this, I die how I want.

Stealing hearts was fun --- that is something that Akira wants to acknowledge as the truth.

The Phantom Thieves lasted for a year, even less than that if he would count to the exact minute of when everything began; when he first stood in the middle of the road with every single person stopping on their tracks and Arsene was a mosaic of flames at the far off distance. He was on probation so he was expected to be on his best behavior and in all honesty, Akira tried. Speak less, don’t act, stay out of trouble --- it was a mantra that reverberated in his skull the very moment he placed his first step in the bustling metropolis that is Tokyo but that year had been anything but quiet.

The thrill was almost intoxicating; putting on Joker’s mask was akin to a drug that disintegrated the crippling feeling of anxiety chaining his ankles. The knife weighed just right in his palm, the high jumps and aesthetic twirls he did as he swung on chandeliers were nothing but child’s play and most of all, bringing people to justice using their own palaces kept him feeling _alive._

The more he thinks about it, that whole year of sending calling cards and setting off heists while gathering public frenzies was an adrenaline-pumping ride that will always be part of Akira whether he likes it or not.

Stealing hearts was indeed fun until it wasn’t.

Much like any other drug, there’s a setback when you find yourself teetering on the boundaries of what they call “too much”. The more people believed, the more discourse had sparked. The more requests they had, the more unsure they became. Their name had been plastered on TV screens and merchandise; it was the biggest craze that overwhelmed them to a fault and from teetering to the boundary, they fell from a high cliff. 

The shadows were stronger and the palace owners were smarter. The stakes started to become too high that he --- that _Joker_ \--- couldn’t afford to slip at a game that demanded death to those who blink first. It was the night before the interrogation when Akira had realized what they were dealing with. In the middle of his restless thoughts while he continued to stop himself from shaking, he realized that they were facing something out of their control; that someone at the very top of the societal ladder could instantly wipe them out with a word and what were they? They were just kids with model guns wearing costumes in a place made out of desires.

Morgana was fast asleep back then and under his covers, he bit his lip and had noticed the cold seeping into his bones. His chest ached, much like the universe itself was reaching out into his heart and started squeezing. He was afraid and it was laughable because Joker wasn’t supposed to feel fear. He was expected to show his tricks to the police and go through that interrogation like a breeze but here, in the real world, he was Akira and he was on the verge of catching his breath and holding off his sobs the night before the day he would be sent as a bet to save their faces.

He knew what justice was supposed to be, he knew that what they were doing was right but he couldn’t get that feeling of dread out of his chest --- it was all too much. He then questioned himself before he finally fell to the clutches of sleep: _Why did it have to be me?_

And it was the worst thing he had ever thought of.

Right now, Akira tries to bury down that same dulled up feeling of fear as he stares at the image claiming to know their whereabouts in Futaba’s laptop.

Leblanc is supposed to be closed up but when they stumbled up upon the cafe with complete attendance, Sojiro sighed and had given them free reign over the establishment. They would have wanted to discuss the whole Phantom Thieves goose chase going on in the internet back in the diner but they were ninety percent sure that they were already too close to getting kicked out if Ryuji kept screaming at every revelation that they had so there wasn’t really much of a choice left other than Leblanc. 

The television is on and the news anchor talking about cat burglar is the only thing that’s keeping the silence from totally enveloping them. The picture is more threatening in a bigger screen than Akira had anticipated; it’s like having a wanted poster shoved onto his face only that they’re supposedly already caught.

“So uh,” Futaba starts awkwardly, moving the laptop to face back at her when it seemed too long for one of them to still be reading such a short message. “Are we gonna stay quiet or are we in a staring contest and I’m the only one who doesn’t know the code for that?”

“If we are then Morgana has lost. I saw him blink just a few moments ago.” Yusuke adds almost excitedly while nodding and surprisingly not blinking after Futaba’s statement.

“We’re not in a staring contest!” Morgana hisses.

“To be honest, haven’t we thought about how the missing people might have been a coincidence to this thing right here?” Ann says with a nervous chuckle. “The one who wrote this sounds like a guy trying too hard to be an adult.”

Ryuji upon hearing this, leans back on his seat and scoffs. “What do you mean? Sounds pretty cool to me.”

“That’s normal coming from you. I’m not the one who called Kamoshida the ‘utter bastard of lust’.” Ann snorts.

“Hey, that happened to be a cool calling card! The very first one! The most _iconic_ one!” Ryuji jumps off from his seat, raising his nose.

“Yeah, and pretty bad art back then too.” Morgana interjects and Haru is halfway standing up, as if on the verge of trying to attempt to stop a sparking fight but fails when Ryuji roars. She sighs awkwardly and brings herself back down with Makoto patting her back.

“Shut up, cat!” Ryuji shoots back and before a single meow spills back from Morgana, Ryuji drops himself back on the chair and faces Ann. “And try saying it to my face that Kamoshida ain’t an utter bastard of lust!”

“Why don’t we all agree that when it comes to statements, Medjed has everyone beat.” Futaba says proudly, a cheeky grin snaking up her lips.

Yusuke nods, “Well they made it internationally.” He says. “And by they, I mean you. That’s a pretty conceited comment.” Futaba only giggles mischievously.

“I think we should get back to the topic at hand.” Akira finally slides in on the conversation that’s pretty much comparable to a train moving at high speed to a wreckage. It’s only then that Akira realizes what Futaba had said and decides to jump back on that speeding train. “Also, that’s so not true. The Phantom Thieves have better calling cards, thank you very much.” He says to Futaba and the girl rolls her eyes.

“Akira.” Makoto calls him and then he straightens his back after a cough.

“Okay, let’s get back to the topic at hand.” He repeats. 

Futaba’s eyes are on the screen again and she’s typing something on the keyboard, the others' voices dwindle; they're back to being eaten by the news anchor on TV once again but their eyes are on him and Akira feels like they’re in their hideout having an actual meeting on how many chests they’ve collected and how they could secure the fastest route to the treasure.

_No, no. This isn’t a heist, the Thieves are gone._ He shakes his head and remembers the statements on that image.

“I think it’s better to investigate.” He voices out after a hum. This isn’t the first news of a person claiming to know the Phantom Thieves. Akira had once encountered a man selling so called ‘magic masks’ back in his hometown, claiming to know the infamous Phantom Thieves from Tokyo and if he were to hang the mask at his door then the Thieves would brutally suck the living shit out of the person intruding in his space. Of course, the man was a phony because not only was the guy talking to the real deal but Akira himself was also pretty sure that he didn’t have a persona that could ‘suck the living shit’ out of anything. However, there’s something on that message that doesn’t sit well with him. “It’s better to be sure.”

“Dude,” Ryuji comments, brows furrowed, concerned.

“Do you all think it’s a hoax?” Akira asks. If a lot of them think otherwise then it’s probably just him overthinking and whoever wrote it must really have been a child pretending to be an adult who just wants to cause some huge funky stuff in the internet behind their parents’ back. He’s developed quite a knack for it --- overthinking --- and he isn’t proud. 

Haru hums at his question and sheepishly raises her hand. “I don’t really think we should think about it so much. I mean, this isn’t the first time we saw something about the Phantom Thieves after the Metaverse disappeared.” See, Haru’s subconsciously calling him out on overthinking.

“Yeah, I think so too.” Ann agrees, twirling a strand of her hair. “I just encountered a guy selling calling cards for a hundred thousand yen claiming that the “aura” protects you from gropers.” She wriggles her fingers as she prolongs the word as if to provide more mystery to the sentence before she snorts. “I don’t think a piece of paper can protect me from gropers, Mister. I protect myself with a taser and a good can of pepper spray.”

“My calling card doesn’t even protect me from flying roaches and hentai ads and to think I’ve got the original.” Futaba puffs her cheeks with her eyes not leaving the screen, her fingers rapidly tapping on the keyboard.

“But what about the missing people though?” Makoto brings a hand over her chin. “It’s weird if you think about how Futaba also said that most people who commented in the forum had never been heard from again.”

“If you put it that way then it is too much of a mere coincidence.” Yusuke says grimly.

At this moment, Morgana jumps onto the table and moves a step closer to him. “You know what’s wrong with that message, don’t you?” He says and truthfully speaking, he’s slightly scared that Morgana had managed to pick up on his unnoticed habits after watching everything he did back in high school for one year and a half through a school bag until a teacher actually caught him in the middle of class under Akira’s table in his last year.

A sigh escapes his lips. He doesn’t know for sure on what’s entirely wrong with the message but he can only point out one sentence.

“It said _“We hope to see you on the next stage.”_ at the last part.” He says. 

“The next stage…” The cat muses. “Like a game?”

“What do you mean a game? There ain’t shit on that message other than them sayin’ they know us and that they ain’t part of some moonlight-starlight whatever occult stuff or something.” Ryuji throws his head back. “You know what? What’s making me more curious about these guys is why they had to throw text on a white background for an image post when they could type it out. It’s not like the thing has a unique background or anything.”

A loud tap from Futaba’s keyboard resounds and she chuckles. “So apparently Ryuji and I had the same line of thought.” She turns the laptop again to face them and cheers. “I’ve hit the jackpot, people!”

Futaba seems proud of her discovery with a wide grin painting her face. She turns the laptop to face them and the pseudo Phan-Site that had that picture is gone; replaced by a black screen with a bunch of neon green text lining up neatly to fill up the whole thing. They blink once and then twice, Futaba’s raising her nose in pride and they look back onto the screen with furrowed brows pursed lips.

Sometimes, Akira thinks that Futaba is too smart to the point that it makes him seem pretty dumb to not understand whatever code she’s showing on the screen and he has to remind himself that no, he’s not stupid, he’s at the top of his class and Futaba is really just a genius gremlin that no amount of enigmatic thinking will equal her. Well, no enigmatic thinking except Yusuke who’s basically an error code to that fact.

The one who questions her findings first is Ryuji whose face is scrunching up so bad from looking at the screen in angles that he never knew was possible that it’s _Akira_ who’s getting uncomfortable watching him.

“Ryuji, if you keep that face on you’re gonna hurt yourself.” Ann deadpans and Ryuji clicks his tongue.

“Uh, I know you’re pretty smart and all ‘Taba but I don’t speak code.” Ryuji says to her with a sigh.

She runs her fingers to her ginger threads and a smug expression sneaks to her face as she flamboyantly flips her hair which Akira could recognize as the way Yusuke flips through his own fringe when showing off his art.

“Okay then peasants-” Akira’s very sure that peasants isn’t the right term for this scenario but he allows Futaba to say it anyway. “Let the intellectual explain her findings!”

“Please do,” Akira chuckles when Futaba stands up to elaborate.

“I was also wondering why they’d have to post that message using a photo instead of typing it out so I ran a few tests to answer some speculations. There’s a code in the image.” She says pointing at the screen. “Which you could see here.”

“Is there anything special with the code?” Akira probes and her smile gets wider.

Her finger clicks a key on her laptop and in seconds, the green texts shift and fade out only for two long neon lines to remain glowing on the black screen.

“Are those… links?” Makoto asks, turning the laptop slightly towards her.

Futaba nods and brings herself back to her seat. “Yup,” She says. “Pretty complicated ones. I doubt anyone would be able to reach them without knowing about the photo.”

Futaba then gets the laptop back and puts the links on different tabs on the search bar.

“All ready, leader?” She glances at Akira, her fingers hovering over the ‘enter’ key before Akira nods and then she chuckles. “Okay, let’s go!”

She clicks the key and the first link is entered. For a whole minute, they find themselves with their heads on the screen, waiting for some sort of change but it remains as is.

“Did we just,” Ann starts. “Break Futaba’s laptop…?”

“It didn’t break!” Futaba yells and immediately jolts up before she drags a finger to the trackpad but the cursor stays still on its place. “Oh God, it crashed! It’s an ambush!”

Ryuji chuckles. “What? Get a virus?”

“Shut up, Skull!” Futaba frustratingly swipes on her trackpad and starts pressing on a key before she groans. “I invested on these specs! I researched, looked at reviews, made sure the flaws and bugs wouldn’t do shit like this and this is what I get? The absolute betrayal!”

“Is a laptop expensive?” Yusuke muses.

“Don’t even think of using your prize money for it Inari, I just bought this!” Futaba retorts and then proceeds to grab on the edges of her laptop and very much glares at it. “Why are you even freezing? And you dare call yourself my child?”

There are laughs pouring out of their lips and truth, even Akira himself can’t prevent the chuckles from escaping but the lighthearted joy comes in swift and eventually dies down when the laptop’s screen slowly starts to morph up its color into a tint of red.

“Uh, am I imagining things or is Futaba-chan’s screen turning red?” Haru asks nervously.

“No shit, I’m seeing it too.” Ryuji responds.

Futaba, on the other hand, raises her hands and cheers. “It didn’t freeze! Yay!” And then she lowers her hands when her face goes down to see that her screen is covered in nothing but bright, saturated, red. “Not yay.”

Soon enough, from beneath the color, text fade in, slowly showing itself on the screen in small serif font with a white bar underneath.

**[do wish to enter a red room?]**

“I-Isn’t a red room supposed to be something in the dark web?” Makoto breaks the incoming silence. 

“I guess we know where the Phantom Thieves drug dealers rumor came from now.” Ryuji scoffs.

Akira moves close to the laptop, hovering the cursor to the white bar before he types ‘yes’ in it.

“And what are you gonna do if it’s gonna take us to an actual red room?” Makoto furrows her brows when he attempts to click ‘enter’.

Well, they’ve gotten this far. It would seem useless to stop now. Besides, if he doesn’t get to the bottom of this site along with its string of missing people then there will be another thing causing headaches for him at night and he’s very much sure that Ryuji’s too sleep deprived to calm him down when that comes.

Still, the scenario doesn’t help in keeping his heart still and Akira’s trying hard to keep its beating from drowning his ears. He’s probably gone soft and it’s enough for him to scoff at it. He got through a false charge of assault, he changed the hearts of many corrupt adults, he encountered the yakuza and he fucking shot _god_ in the face and he’s scared of a little red website that may or may not be fake.

With a small chuckle and push of his glasses, he glances at Makoto and replies: “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

He presses enter, hoping for nothing to happen --- that the whole thing was just indeed, a scam but it turns out Akira’s hoping for too much when the bar momentarily goes red and fades back to white as it erases his typed out text as a sentence pops out below the bar in gray letters.

**[wrong answer, please try again.]**

Ryuji takes over the laptop, types out a ‘no’ and enters it only to get the same result. “What other answers do you fucking want, dude!?”

“...So it’s a scam?” Ann raises a brow.

“Not yet.” Akira says. “Let’s enter the other link first.”

“Roger that!” Futaba turns the laptop towards her once again and goes back to the code before she enters the link on another tab. Unlike the first one, the second link loads quickly and immediately shows an audio file that lasts for about six minutes. Automatically, Futaba turns up the volume and plays the file. 

Sound then booms out of the device with static ripping out the air sharply, painfully getting into their ears as they groan and unconsciously.

“Turn the sound down!” Haru squeaks and Futaba, with a wince, turns the volume down to an appropriate level.

Static continues to play and for a while it’s like an offline radio station and someone’s changing up the channels for small peaks and squeaks to come out. Akira furrows his brows. It does sound like regular static --- the type that irritates Sojiro when the television just gets on its busted episodes --- but if he endures the sharp noise and listen closely to the squeaks, he can hear a faint melody.

“Turn it up a bit.” Akira tells Futaba and when the others give him a look of protest, he cuts off the unsaid complaints. “I hear something else.”

And they nod, agreeing. Futaba turns the volume up a bit again and the noise is louder and sharper but not too much for their ears to start bleeding.

Akira hears it. He isn’t imagining things --- there’s someone singing underneath the static; a foreign language in a high falsetto that he recalls as something he would hear in the opera if he actually had enough money to witness one.

Yusuke gasps, noticing the song and stands. “Stravinsky.” He blinks.

“What?” Ann lifts up a brow.

“Stravinsky. He’s a composer, I believe he was the one who wrote this piece.” Yusuke replies, running his fingers through his fringe before they settle down his chin. “I know some conservatory students who sang this before.”

Futaba whistles. “Whoa, I never pegged you to be a music guy.”

“But of course!” Yusuke replies and there’s evident charisma glowing in his eyes. “Music is also a product of the arts and one must still properly appreciate the beauty of the classics!” He continues. “Although I’m not quite sure of the title of this piece.”

Stravinsky, Akira notes in his head. The two links were found in the code. He trusts Futaba enough to know that these weren’t just coincidentally found in the image so there must be something that ties them together. The first is a website that asks if the user wants to go to a red room --- he takes another mental note to gather more witness accounts on this. He may have to go to Crossroads again. --- and another is an audio file with a hidden opera piece composed by Stravinsky. If the first link asks for a specific answer then what should they do to the audio file to find that answer?

It’s weird, Akira thinks. The message in the forum clearly stated that they have given everything that they would need to find the Phantom Thieves. If so, then what was lacking?

They’re not going to get anywhere by just straining their brains with these small clues. Akira sighs, he’ll just ask Yusuke to maybe get more information from his friends about the piece and they could probably get something for the red room.

He breathes in, “Yusu-”

_“What patient people you are!”_

A voice cuts Akira off and their heads turn immediately back to Futaba’s laptop with Ann, speeding towards the television to turn it off. 

_“You waited this long to hear us, we are very impressed.”_

The voice, no, _voices_ are mixed up, distorted --- enough to bring a shiver down Akira’s spine. They shift from syllable to syllable like people in the radio being cut off when you’re switching channels. The pitches are high and immediately go low, one word is said by a child and another would be said by an adult --- voices of all genders coming on as one.

_“It proves some part of your determination to find these Phantom Thieves. Worry not, they will bring you to justice; whatever type of it that you please. Only if you are worthy.”_ A broken, cut up laugh separates the sentences. _“The answer you seek lies in Delphi. Listen carefully, do not pay attention to anything else. We will not allow cheaters.”_

And with that, the audio file ends abruptly. With the absence of the TV anchor in the background, they are finally covered in a pregnant pause.

“What the fuck.” He hears Ryuji breathe in.

“They said the answer lies in Delphi.” Morgana says, jumping to the counter. “It means that would be our answer to the red room.”

“Yeah but what even is Delphi? A person or something?” Ryuji scratches the back of his head.

“I don’t think so.” Ann shakes her head.

“It’s a place.” Makoto says. “It’s a historical one known to be featured in many books and ancient literature.”

“I believe it is a place subject in many artworks although aside from the epics that feature it, I do not have any information that would help us as of the moment.” Yusuke sighs with a somber expression.

Ryuji purses his lips. “So…” He starts. “We just gotta go to Delphi?”

“I don’t think that’s possible.” Haru laughs awkwardly, scratching her chin.

“Yeah, don’t even think about it, Skull.” Futaba shoots the suggestion down. “You and Akira are already broke enough.”

They can’t find the answer tonight --- at least that’s what Akira thinks. If he looks back, Fuuga said _‘Just you wait’_ when he mentioned the Phantom Thieves so it couldn’t have been an easy task to do so. 

A red room. Stravinsky. Delphi.

These are the three main topics that the cryptic message had brought so it means that the answer only lies within the three.

“We need to search for more info first and then come up with an answer after.” Akira says and glances at Yusuke. “Yusuke, I leave the piece to you then? You can ask your friends from the conservatory about it.”

“Are there any specific questions that I need to ask?” Yusuke replies.

Akira hums at the question. “The title is a must and probably the background of both the composer and the song.”

Yusuke nods. “I understand. I shall do that.”

Akira then turns to Makoto and Haru. “Makoto, Haru, I’ll leave the topic of Delphi to you. If there’s a wide source of information for it then Todai’s libraries would suffice. Is that okay with you?”

“Got it.” Makoto replies and Haru nods before she looks at her and says: “Let’s do our best, Haru.”

To Ann, “Can you look up on rumors regarding the red room?” Akira asks to which Ann answers with a determined nod.

“Futaba and Ryuji will be in charge of looking into that person who went missing in Kosei. She was uh--” Akira continues and looks at Futaba, asking her to finish the sentence.

“Oh, Shinomiya Fuyuka-san.” Futaba replies.

“Okay. So information regarding Shinomiya then.” He says. “I’ll ask Mishima to help us with that too.”

“Leave it to me and ‘Taba, Akira.” Ryuji says afterwards and Futaba grins.

“Morgana and I will look into the red room too.” He looks to Morgana and the cat meows.

“Crossroads then?” Morgana asks and Akira nods.

“It’s been a while.”

Futaba then exits the sites and closes her laptop. For some reason, a collective sigh draws itself out of their lips and it brings a short laugh out of them after.

“To think that we’d be in this situation. It’s somewhat nostalgic.” Yusuke chuckles.

“I know, it almost seems like we’re going into Mementos again.” Haru adds, an excited smile snaking up to her lips.

Makoto then sighs again. “But this time it’s gonna be harder with our schedules. I’ll probably run back and forth from the station to the school.”

Haru pats Makoto comfortingly on the back. “It’s all right, Mako-chan, I’ll be helping you after all!”

“Man but juggling info searching and moving quizzes.” Ryuji groans. “Ain’t the best time to be a Phantom Thief.”

True, Akira’s not expecting that they’ll get the answer immediately like before but if it’s true that the post is causing people to go missing then he may have to risk some parts of his time for this and Akira’s sure that he’s sacrificing sleep. 

“Okay then, so let’s have a little motivation for our search.” Akira smirks. “Whoever brings me valuable information first gets a date with me!” He cheers and he adds a wink to which everyone groans with an automatic reply.

“Pass--”

_The audacity._

“Wow, I’m actually hurt by this. Not wanting a date with your ever charismatic leader?” Akira holds onto his chest, crumples his shirt and grunts in fake pain. “It hurts, I might die” _Not that I haven’t done that before._

“Akira has a pretty face and all but I wouldn’t wanna date him.” Ryuji snickers.

“Hey!”

”Same goes for me.” Ann laughs and raises her hand.

“Such traitors!” He clicks his tongue.

“You’re too much of a gremlin.” Futaba chuckles.

“I don’t want to hear that from you, gremlin!” He spits back

“I am already in a relationship with Futaba so I do not know the purpose of me needing a date with our charismatic leader.” Yusuke deadpans.

Akira holds off a cough. He rolls his eyes and shakes his head before he sneaks up a devilish grin before he replies: “A date with your charismatic leader in a _buffet.”_

Yusuke’s eyes shoot open, with enough force, his body skyrockets up to knock the table slightly while he gasps. _“A buffet!?”_

A few giggles come out of Haru’s lips and Morgana shakes his tiny head slightly before jumping back behind the counter. Futaba puffs her cheeks in annoyance and suddenly marches in between Akira and Yusuke. She lifts up herself by her toes to slightly reach Akira’s height.

“No fair, you’re bribing him with food! Inari can’t refuse that!” She says.

Akira chuckles mischievously. “He didn’t even reply yet!”

“That’s because it’s food! Besides,” Futaba retorts and turns back to Yusuke. “I’m sorry Inari! _I’m_ taking the buffet!”

Ryuji bursts out laughing, slapping the table as he hears this while Makotot tries to hold out her laughs.

Shock washes over Yusuke’s face like a wave and he’s physically taken aback. “A betrayal…”

_The more Yusuke spends time with Futaba, the more he talks like her, I see._

“Well if Futaba’s getting this fired up for a buffet then I might as well too! I’ll gather up rumors at lightning speed.” Ann cheers. “Plus, that means Akira would be paying all the cake I’d eat!”

At this point, he’s asking himself why he mentioned a buffet when he basically has almost zero cash in his wallet but the thought of Ann stuffing her mouth with cake while using what’s left of his money makes him go pale. _Oh dear God please don’t let Ann win._

Makoto chuckles. “Everyone’s getting serious, huh? Sorry to break it to you but Haru and I will be getting that buffet. We got the same task after all.”

Akira hates himself and his goddamn mouth so much.

“Akira, you still owe me sushi.” Morgana pops his head from over the counter.

That’s it. Akira’s wallet: dead, never to be seen again.

“Now that’s what I call getting all of us pumped up!” Ryuji calms down from his laughter and wipes off the stray tears on the corners of his eyes. He turns over to Akira with a wide grin. “Well now that we’re here, you have to say it, leader.”

The smiles are back on their faces and for a while Akira sees them as high schoolers who only wanted justice. The night isn’t getting any younger and so are they; Akira knows that he will never be able to stop everyone from changing but he doesn’t mind. The future is still far ahead, now they have all the time in the world. For now, _this_ is enough and will always be enough.

The fear creeping up on him is now held back and for a second he feels at ease. He knows that whatever happens they’ll have his back and at that very same moment, he feels a heavy weight replacing that fear --- a type that he had long acknowledged as grief.

He tries not to let his frown show --- it becomes easy with practice --- and tries to ignore a familiar silhouette of a detective on a specific place on this cafe. 

If Akira had saved Akechi then would he also be here to solve this mystery with them?

He swallows the lump in his throat and straightens his back as he throws the thought away. It isn’t as easy as hiding a frown but as long as no one can read his mind then he doesn’t need to conceal anything completely.

“Mission start!” He says it firmly with the voice he uses in Mementos. It riles them up even further and a few moments after, when they notice that the trains are stopping soon, they take their leave one by one. Makoto is the first to leave when she finally notices that she put her phone on silent and Sae had been calling her for about five times already which made her dash to Leblanc’s exit. Haru and Ann follow shortly.

Morgana waits for Futaba on the counter and Yusuke, taking his coat, offers to take Futaba home but when they reach the door, she lets out a small sound and stops on her steps before she actually _screeches._

“What the hell, that was worse than the static.” Ryuji comments, covering his ear but Futaba pretends not to hear.

“I forgot to do my homework!” She says in horror, turns around and dashes up to the attic but before Akira could comprehend the situation, he hears Futaba’s footsteps going back down and the girl comes back to grab Morgana. “You’re coming with me, kitty.”

“What the--- Why!? You’re only doing homework!” Morgana hisses but doesn’t struggle through Futaba’s hold.

Futaba pouts. “It’s late, I need the company. If any of these guys do so then I won’t get any work done!” She replies while glancing at the three of them. There’s a loud meow that comes out of Morgana that almost sounds like a groan but he doesn’t complain anymore when Futaba does end up bringing him upstairs.

Ryuji blinks and then chuckles. “Futaba’s always gonna be Futaba, huh.” He muses and then nudges at Akira. “Hey, you staying here or are you coming back to the apartment?”

Akira hums. “I’ll probably stay.” He says, tired. “Will you be okay on your own though?”

“You’re forgetting who you’re talking to, dude. I’ll be fine!” He pats Akira’s back. “That probably means you don’t have class in the morning tomorrow?”

Akira nods. “Hifumi texted me earlier when we were on our way here.”

Ryuji shrugs. “Okay then. Togo’s pretty reliable, huh.” He says. “Well, see ya ‘Kira, Yusuke!” Ryuji then grabs his bag and runs off.

Yusuke, however, lays his coat down on the chair and sits on the stool, taking a sketchpad out of his bag.

Akira tilts his head, confused. “Not going yet? Trains will stop soon.”

“I shall take my leave once Futaba is finished with her homework.” He says as he begins to sketch. 

“You’re gonna take a cab then?” Akira takes the stool next to him.

Yusuke shakes his head. “No, Boss lets me stay in the guest room whenever Futaba loses track of time to hang out with me. In truth I wouldn’t want to intrude but,” He stops drawing for a second and gazes at the path to the stairs leading to the attic before he turns to his sketchbook again. “I just cannot bring myself to leave her alone.”

Well, that’s probably how everyone feels when they start dating but he doesn’t say his thoughts out loud. After all, he’s never dated a single person before so voicing that out would sound like him invalidating whatever Yusuke feels so he keeps himself quiet about this and focuses on the fact that Sojiro had been allowing Yusuke to sleep in the guest room --- a feat he had never achieved if he scraps away the moments after the interrogation.

“Kinda jealous that Boss just lets you sleep in the guest room while I take the attic.”

Yusuke blinks at him. “My apologies, I didn’t mean to.”

Akira puffs his cheeks, imitating how Futaba did with hers a moment ago. “Yusuke, you’re still too uptight, I was kidding.”

“Well you and Futaba have always been like siblings.” His grip tightens on his pencil. “Now that I think of it, to rob you of such an opportunity is shameful!”

Akira chuckles nervously. “No, I mean it, I was kidding.” He says, waving his hand in font of his face. “I got to spend some nights in the guest room myself back in high school.” _Because I was beaten and drugged and Sojiro couldn’t just leave me in Leblanc._

When Yusuke opens his mouth to reply, a loud thud followed by clutters resounds from the attic.

“Mona those are my pens! Give them back!” Futaba’s voice echoes from upstairs and it brings a smile on both of their faces.

Akira sighs and glances at the jars of coffee on the shelves before he faces Yusuke. “Coffee?”

“If that is all right with you then I shall take up that offer.” He says with a coy smile.

“All right, coffee it is.” He walks past the bar and moves to grab some coffee beans and the equipment. He hasn’t made Leblanc’s signature coffee for quite a while now (His stock in the apartment ran out and he was utterly devastated) so getting to taste a familiar flavor excites him for a bit.

More noises are heard from upstairs and one is loud enough for Akira to almost drop a cup and another makes Yusuke accidentally draw an unwanted line on a very realistic cat on his sketchbook and the result makes his brows furrow.

“When did Futaba start doing homework in the attic?” Akira laughs when he hears a whine coming from Morgana and a huge cheer of victory from Futaba. Definitely no homework is being done.

Yusuke stops on his sketch for a moment and then proceeds to move to the next page and work on another. “It was after you left. Her first semester in Kosei.”

Akira clics his tongue. “Is this what they call the _Dad, can I take his room?_ that siblings do when the other leaves?” It definitely sounds like something Futaba would do but it confuses Akira on why she would want an attic in a cafe in the first place. _Well, it’s spacious. I guess she’d want it._

“Probably,” Yusuke chuckles. “But mostly because she missed you.”

Akira stops pouring the coffee, surprise pours over him for a minute before he smiles softly. “…Is that so?”

Yusuke’s drawing their masks on the paper. “Her life changed for the better because of you so not having you around made her a little lonely, perhaps.” He says. “She couldn’t sleep in the attic. She won’t admit it but it’s probably because she knows that the room is yours but she does most of her school work there.”

“I missed all of you too.” He says without thought but he doesn’t regret it either. “My last year in high school wasn’t as fun without you guys.” 

“And truthfully speaking, I’m sure that everyone feels the same way about you.” Yusuke says bluntly and Akira still isn’t certain on how Yusuke manages to say these things with a straight face. 

The coffee is finished and he pours a cup for both him and Yusuke before he goes back in his stool. He slides the cup over to Yusuke and blows over the steam on his. The artist thanks him and carefully takes a sip before he continues on sketching.

Yusuke drew their masks pretty well --- they almost look real. He continues to add some shades on Skull’s mask and Akira takes a quick look at the finished ones. He doesn’t notice it at first but he sees Akechi’s mask at the corner --- the one he wore in Sae’s palace when he used Robin Hood.

The frown finally shows and Yusuke notices but doesn’t address it.

“I’ve also been meaning to ask, Akira, if you’d allow me to.” Yusuke pauses on sketching and starts, lifting his head slightly to meet his eyes.

Akira blinks at him once and then twice before he laughs dryly. He and Yusuke are friends, why does he need to ask permission for a question?

“Of course, ask me anything you want, I won’t bite.” 

Yusuke stays silent for a second, hesitatingly opens his mouth as if trying to hold his words back. At some point, Akira thought the man would brush the question off until Yusuke finally voices something out.

“About this… _thing,”_ About the whole Phantom-Thieves-forum-disappearing-people case. “Are you… doing all right…?”

Akira’s thoughts stop there for a while --- a whole five seconds with his mind just being blank. How was he doing? 

How _was_ he doing?

He’s stressed because of college, his headaches don’t seem to have any intention on stopping, his parents don’t really want to see him and he’s still doing his best to help the people who need him. How does he articulate that in one word that doesn’t make anyone worry?

“I’m doing fine,” He says at the absence of a proper word. “What brought this on though?”

“If there’s anything you have taught me when we were still in high school, it was how to be sensitive with others; the true essence of the human heart.” Yusuke replies and for some reason, Akira doesn’t know where that sentence is taking them. “We do things to make people acknowledge their wrongdoings and hopefully get them to confess on our free time, we’re all occupied with our studies and then there’s this. I think everyone is just worried about you getting too tired and burned out.”

Tired. Is that how he’s doing? 

“Nah,” Akira shrugs and waves the statement off. “Keeping myself busy is one of my favorite hobbies. Plus, I’d be more stressed out if I left this issue alone.”

Yusuke doesn’t look entirely convinced but doesn’t pry any further. “I see.” He says. “I’m sorry if I overstepped on something.”

As always, Yusuke is formal with his words and Akira chuckles.

“You didn’t overstep on anything.” He says with another sip of his coffee. “If you’re dating Futaba then that probably makes you my brother-in-law? You’re technically part of the family now, loosen up a bit!” He pats Yusuke on the back and the action brings out a smile on his face. “But of course, brother-in-law or not, I hate to be the bringer of bad news but I’ll still beat you up if you break her heart. I won’t spare your pretty face.”

“I fully think that I am incapable of doing such.” Yusuke furrows his brows. “My bond with Futaba will not harm her thus I have nothing to fear.”

“Your bond with Futaba as in Rated-R doujinshi and gay fanfiction?” Akira raises a brow and is immediately reminded of the day Futaba called him at three in the morning of his graduation to yell about how she and Yusuke collaborated in making a doujin that he bought without fail.

“She has her own unique quirks. There is art in making manga as well.” 

At this moment, Akira’s phone rings. It’s Ryuji.

  
**Ryuji**  
forgot to tell u earlier. you better get your ass to takemi-sensei’s clinic tomorrow or im personally breaking your kneecaps

  
He’s pretty much sure that Ryuji can never hurt a single hair in his body let alone his kneecaps.

“Is there something wrong?” Yusuke asks when he doesn’t look up from his screen for a while when he was thinking of a reply.

“No, it’s just Ryuji.” Akira shrugs. “He’s reminding me to go to Takemi-sensei’s clinic tomorrow or he’ll break my kneecaps.”

“...Is there something wrong?” Yusuke repeats the question but his tone is less calm, more serious.

“Whoa, what’s that face for?” Akira asks with a chuckle. “It’s just a check-up, nothing serious. At this point I’m doing this for formalities.” He says but there’s no doubt that Takemi will call him out once he says that his headaches haven’t gotten any better.

“Did she ever tell you what was the matter?” Yusuke asks, putting down his pencil and turning his body towards him.

Akira shrugs again. “Said it was probably psychosomatic but that’s not gonna be proven if I don’t go to a specialist. She talked about it with Ryuji too since I’m rooming with him.”

Yusuke taps his finger on his sketchbook and the abruptly stops. “Then,” He starts. “Did you ever consider seeing a specialist?”

He did. Once, back in his hometown during the first semester of his senior year.

“Yeah but I dropped them.” Akira says honestly. “If I tell them what happened then they’d prescribe me something that I definitely don’t need.” He scoffs.

Akira really didn’t need to think twice the moment Takemi mentioned a “specialist” because it immediately translated in his head as a “therapist”. He heeded her request at first of course since he’d do anything to stop waking up with his skull wanting to explode in the morning but when he was actually there, he realized how much of a bad idea it was.

What was he even going to say? That he went inside people’s heads and stole their hearts while being the most suave Phantom of the Opera with a model gun? That the guy who attempted to murder him died to protect them in the cognition of the once most highly anticipated candidate for prime minister? That he’s being eaten by regret that he didn’t do anything to protect said murderer at the time? That he had a _talking cat?_

Convincing Sae was a miracle in itself and Akira knows it won’t work with others.

“It helps, Akira.” Yusuke says. “At least for me and Futaba.” For Ryuji too, apparently. The guy just went up to Akira and said ‘Well shit, ‘Kira, I think I’m going to a therapist’ when he learned about the huge importance it plays in mental health after one of his classes. The guy worked part time in the beef bowl shop to pay for the bills but Ryuji’s thankful that it managed to help him get closure with all the bullshit thrown in his life and Akira’s proud that it did since he has never seen Ryuji so happy before. 

For him? He doubts that it would work that well.

“Your problems were real, Yusuke.” He breathes out.

“And so are yours.” Yusuke says back. “I do not think you need to tell them all the details but having someone listen to you is helpful.”

Akira breathes in. He feels like his head is swimming --- like he was plunged into the middle of the sea and he can’t swim up. There’s a lump stuck in his throat and it’s hard to swallow. He doesn’t really know what face he’s making but Yusuke’s face of concern suggests that he’s looks like anything but fine. For a minute he thinks of that dream in that wrecked up Velvet Room with Akechi in the opposite cell.

Akechi. Now that he realizes, it’s been years since he actually heard his voice and he manages to clearly remember it in a dream. A dream doesn’t count, it’s not real. The last time he ever heard him was…

_Change Shido’s heart for me, end his crimes, please!_

“I-” Akira breathes out, the syllable comes out as a wheeze and then he lands his elbows on the table before he buries his face in his palms and oh _God_ this is no time to start shaking. “Even so I…”

_I can’t bring up Akechi._ And that’s the point, what’s the good in getting help if he can’t bring up Akechi? If he chokes up in grief by just the mere mention of his name? It’s already hard to spill himself wholly with people who know of the Metaverse, how much more if it’s someone who’s completely clueless of it?

“Akira -” 

“How do you even… _forget_ ghosts that refuse to die?” It comes out painfully with each syllable because that’s how Akechi is now --- a ghost. In the papers, he’s missing. In the Metaverse, he’s dead. In Akira’s head, he’s the ghost of his regrets and such hurts him because right now --- or even the future days --- he can’t do anything to make up for his mistakes because Akechi is _dead._

He can feel a sharp sting on his temple and he swallows a grunt along with a curse rising up onto his throat. At the same time, he feels Yusuke’s hand on his shoulder.

“You wait until they die.” He says. “Take all the time you need, there is no need to rush.”

And he forces out a smile after a breath of relief. “Thanks, Yusuke.”

“Anytime.” 

A little while later, Morgana and Futaba come back from the attic with the cat hanging by her shoulders and they look physically exhausted by all the banter rather than doing homework alone.

“I am never bringing Mona for homework ever again.” She says.

“You were the one disturbing me!” Morgana meows back.

“And you took my pens!” Futaba retorts back with her puffed cheeks but doesn’t make any action to remove Morgana from her shoulder. She glances at Akira, a little surprised that he’s still there. “Staying over?”

“Yup.” Akira nods. “Well, if you don’t mind that is. I can always sleep outside in the cold.”

“Yeah, I dare you to try.” Futaba giggles before she shrugs. “It’s your room anyway, you don’t need to ask. Even Sojiro doesn’t touch the stuff you left behind.” 

“Is the homework finished?” Yusuke asks, closing his sketchbook.

Futaba gives him a goofy grin before he reaches out for his sleeve. “Sorry if I had you wait, Inari.” 

Yusuke only nods with a small smile. He reaches for her hand and intertwines their fingers. “I’ll walk you home, then.”

Akira sighs roughly out loud with Morgana swiftly hopping onto his shoulders. “You really shouldn’t be doing this in front of a single man and a cat.”

“My apologies.” Yusuke says and looks at his and Futaba’s hands before he lets go of hers hesitatingly but Futaba’s quick to snatch it back.

“If it bothers you so much then get yourself a smooch from someone already!” She says, leaning towards Akira with a kissy face before she drags Yusuke to the door. “Night, night, Akira!”

Akira clicks his tongue. “Hey,” He calls and Futaba turns around. “When are you even going to tell me how you guys got together?”

Yusuke opens his mouth to answer but Futaba steals the chance to reply with a smirk plastered on her face. 

“On my deathbed.” She cheers they finally leave, the bell resounding throughout the room once the door closes.

He and Morgana are left in the cafe by themselves and for a solid five seconds, all they do is look at the door and then to each other before Morgana hisses and says: “Ugh, couples.”

Akira scoffs, “Tell me about it.”

* * *

  
Yu is very much convinced that Kurusu Akira controls time by only God knows what methods.

The station was busy and when he was running through the papers, there were two grown men fighting over who hit who first during a car accident while an officer tries his best to calm the fuck down because everything’s going to be a lot shittier if they don’t settle and decide to take the case to court. Yu, on the other hand, was in Naoto’s cubicle and was very much amazed by Kurusu’s records --- at least the ones that they have anyway.

The guy was at the top of his class in Shujin according to his probation records and apparently he juggled about countless part time jobs while doing so. The reason for these jobs, Yu doesn’t know (not yet at least) and he continues to ask himself on why Kurusu had to work this much when he was only in high school.

Of course, among the known part time jobs Kurusu was known to have, a few known people had showed up that Yu finds suspicious for a high schooler to make ties with.

First was Takemi Tae, a doctor with her own infamous case. The second was Yoshida Toranosuke or a politician who was known as “No-Good-Tora” for quite a while for embezzlement and next would be Iwai Munehisa, an owner of a shop selling model guns who may or may not have ties with the yakuza. Not much is known on how Kurusu met them or even if Kurusu actually worked for them in the first place but the fact that these people set up petitions to get Kurusu out of solitary speaks for itself. They know Kurusu enough to make an effort to get him out of juvenile hall.

At the tip of the iceberg, Yu doesn’t need to think a lot to acknowledge that Kurusu was a really busy kid. At this point, he’s just going to continue asking on what the guy eats for him to be always on the go. Is it the coffee? Candy? _Drugs?_ Whatever it was Yu knows he could have needed it when he was juggling through everything in Inaba,

Before Yu knows it, he was on a train to a hospital to meet Takemi Tae. If he needs to talk to Kurusu then he won’t be doing it without knowing anything. The guy doesn’t trust police power and that alone is going to be a tough barrier to break even if Yu himself isn’t directly involved with the cops. Establishing trust is important --- especially if he plans to open up the topic of personas --- and he can’t do that if the only thing he knows about him would be the fact that he doesn’t mind that Yu spilled coffee all over his shirt.

He reaches the hospital within twenty minutes. It’s a fairly large one and apparently, it’s where Kiyama Jun, the third victim of the killings, worked before he transferred to a medical plaza in a private laboratory. 

The process of finding Takemi is rather easy especially when he uses his profession and soon enough, he finds himself in front of Takemi’s office in the fourth floor. His knee is bouncing nervously and for some reason he can’t keep proper control of his nerves. Hospitals had always made him uneasy after the whole thing with Nanako.

In truth, he isn’t supposed to talk to Takemi first but to Niijima Sae. Just like Naoto said, however, it’s hard to get a hold of her and when Yu filed for an appointment, Niijima was too busy handling her own cases to talk to him. 

“Next in line would have been Akechi Goro, huh.” He says to himself. Akechi had gone missing in pursuit of the Phantom Thieves. He was considered a genius who was labeled as the second coming of the Detective Prince at a very young age; he guesses Naoto already has a huge title for herself that it could be passed on to generations. There had been no clues to his whereabouts. “I can at least find out where he used to live after this.” He muses. He may have to tell Yosuke that he doesn’t need to wait up for him.

“Narukami-san?” The sliding door to Takemi’s office opens, a petite woman with black hair and a sheepish voice calls out to him. “Takemi-sensei is free for the appointment now.”

She opens the door even further and moves to the side, gesturing him to come in.

“I see, thank you,” Yu smiles at her and manages to get a glimpse of her ID. She’s supposedly Takemi’s secretary. “Azuki-san.” 

The secretary goes back to her desk and points to the door towards Takemi’s office before she sits back down. Yu bows to her again before he knocks on the door and lets himself in.

“So you’re the guy who scheduled an appointment about thirty minutes ago?” A woman with short hair in black punk clothing says as she crosses her legs, her hands flipping through a clipboard with her eyes scanning through the contents. Takemi glances at him, tries to smile and goes back to the clipboard. “What sort of emergency is it that other doctors can’t qualify for that it absolutely has to be me?”

Yu smiles at her. “Good morning, Takemi-sensei I’m -” She guts him off when she glances at him and waves the clipboard over as a gesture to sit down and Yu follows, bowing slightly before he takes a seat in front of the table. “I’m Narukami Yu and I’m not here as a patient.”

“Are you referring a someone?” Takemi asks. 

“No, I want to ask about someone.” Yu replies and the sentence is enough for Takemi to throw the clipboard back onto the table and she leans forward to listen. “It’s about Kurusu Akira.”

Takemi lifts up a brow and sighs. “Are you his guardian?”

“No-”

“Relative?”

“No, I’m-”

“A letter of permission?”

“...No,”

“Then I’m sorry but even if you’re friends with Kurusu I can’t tell you any of his medical information or status. It’s a breach of confidentiality.” She runs her fingers through her hair, gets the clipboard and stands up to return it to the shelves. 

Yu pauses for a bit and tries to absorb what she just said. “…Medical information or status?” Yu says. “Isn’t Kurusu-san just your part timer?”

Takemi turns back to him, her face in a state of momentary surprise before her brows furrow. “Part timer? That was a long time ago. I haven’t even started working here yet.” 

That’s strange. He could have sworn Naoto said that a reliable source informed her that Kurusu spent an amount of time here. 

“So he works for someone else here?” 

Takemi tilts her head in confusion. “What? Kurusu?” She says and then muses to herself lowly but Yu manages to pick the words up. “Wasn’t Sakamoto the one who took pre-med?”

_Sakamoto?_

“I’m sorry, Kurusu doesn’t work here, he’s not even qualified to do so.” She continues. “He’s my patient but I thought you already know that.”

Yu tries to collect some of his thoughts and confirms that Kurusu did indeed work for Takemi before but not currently. What bugs him is the fact that Kurusu visits the hospital frequently and Takemi had said that he's her patient..

“...Is Kurusu-san sick…?”

Takemi sighs roughly, scratches the back of her head and then drops herself back down the chair. “Do you even know Kurusu at all?”

“Acquaintances.” Yu says and he’s not entirely lying. He did promise Kurusu coffee.

“And we’re back to square one. I can’t tell you anything about Kurusu’s records.”

Yu purses his lips. He should have really introduced himself properly. With a sigh, he takes his ID from his bag and places it on Takemi’s table for her to see.

“Let me start again, I’m Narukami Yu, I’m not here as a patient. I’m a private investigator and I would really appreciate it if you could answer some questions.” He says politely.

Takemi doesn’t pick up his ID. Instead, her eyes flutter for a bit before staring at him with a slightly darkened expression that Yu could immediately feel the atmosphere getting denser.

“Did someone do anything to Kurusu?” Is what she asks and not _Did Kurusu do something?_

“No, but Kurusu-san is related to a case I was hired to investigate and thus I need some people to verify his character.”

“Couldn’t you get that from a school?” She asks. “They hand out a piece of paper for that, it’s called Good Moral Character.”

“It’s a different kind of investigation.” He replies. “I would appreciate it if you could answer my questions honestly.”

Takemi chuckles. “You know Mr. Investigator, I still can’t answer anything regarding Kurusu’s medical records. If you want them then show me letter of authorization.”

He probably doesn’t need to access Kurusu’s medical information unless whatever was afflicting Kurusu played a role in him being a Phantom Thief. For now, he’ll keep a speculation: Kurusu visits frequently, his doctor is Takemi Tae, there’s a high chance that he’s sick or somewhat sick. Frequent visits would mean something along the lines of keeping up maintenance.

“That’s fine.” Yu says. “So anything outside of Kurusu-san’s medical information is okay to discuss?”

Takemi purses her lips and then sighs. “Fine, what do you want to know?”

“How did he end up working for you?” Yu asks her and takes out a small notebook for him to write into.

“I run a clinic in Yongen. Kurusu’s often in that area so he dropped by asking for medicine to help him in his exams.”

“Medicine for exams?”

“Just some over the counter drugs. Memory-boosting pills or stuff like that.” She laughs for a bit. “But medicine’s pretty expensive so he asked if he could work for them. I was a little understaffed so I let him.”

Okay, that’s plausible. “Can you tell me what Kurusu-san was like as a person?”

“What Kurusu was like?” She scoffs. “That’s a weird thing to ask. He was a kid in high school. Good grades, always with this cat, helpful. The type who wouldn’t leave you alone unless you let him help you if you’re having trouble with something.”

Yu then tries to test the waters a bit. “Even if he was once arrested for assault?”

Takemi goes silent for a few seconds, her stare is comparable to a dagger and the atmosphere grows heavier. “It was a false charge.”

“Right,” Yu says but Takemi doesn’t look like she likes where the topic is going. “Do you happen to know why he was arrested in November, 2016? Or when he turned himself in during Christmas Eve of the same year?” 

Takemi sighs roughly at this and leans back on her chair. “Look, Kurusu was only my part timer back then and a patient now. I don’t know much about what he does and right now I am utterly clueless on what antics he did in 2016.” She shakes her head. “If you’re looking for someone to get a whole character analysis on Kurusu then I’m sorry, you have the wrong person. Are there any more questions left?”

Yu closes the notebook and keeps it in his bag. “None.” He says and smiles at her. “Thank you for your cooperation, you’ve been very helpful.”

Takemi forces a grin back. “I doubt but you’re welcome.”

He stands up and takes a bow before he thanks her again and then he makes his way back to the door.

“Narukami-san, was it?” Takemi calls and he turns back.

“Yes?” 

“The only thing I’m certain about Kurusu is that he’s a good kid.” She says.

Yu’s smile widens. “I believe so too, Takemi-sensei.”

With that, Yu makes his way out of the office, thanks Takemi’s secretary and finally gets out of the hospital. If he flips through his notes then he could say that he did gather information but it’s too little to be called enough. Investigating someone without proper permission has its barriers and Yu has to learn to get past them.

His handwriting isn’t is as neat as it used to be but by some power he still manages to read his notes. Takemi claims that he doesn’t know Kurusu outside of the context of a part timer and a patient. Yu encircles this part of his scribbles; Takemi knows Kurusu enough to call him a good person with confidence. She was also one of the people who got him out of juvenile hall so he doubts this answer is false. To add more to the heap of contradictions, Takemi apparently knows Kurusu’s circle of friends --- a guy named Sakamoto if he managed to hear correctly.

He flips through more of the pages and finally lands on the last one in which he puts a question mark over it.

_Kurusu is sick…?_

He sighs roughly at this. The next one to meet would be the man selling model guns in Shibuya. If he goes right now then he’ll still be able to find Akechi Goro’s address after.

He keeps his notebook again and scratches the back of his head. God, it’s going to be a busy day. When he was about to enter the train station, his phone rings --- it’s Naoto.

“Naoto?”

_“Senpai? I just bumped into Nishimiya. I heard Niijima turned you down?”_ There’s a sound of rustling papers in the background. Perhaps Naoto’s reviewing the files again. 

“Unfortunately, yes.” He sighs. “But I managed to talk to Takemi Tae and I’m thinking of tracking down where Akechi Goro once lived so I’ll probably go back to the station after I ask another of Kurusu’s acquaintances in Shibuya.”

_“That sounds like a busy schedule.”_ It is but Naoto probably has the same chaotic time table as him. _“Will you still be able to set aside some time to exchange information with me?”_

“Of course,” He nods. “Will you be there in the station by seven?” 

_“Yeah, I’m pretty sure I’ll there.”_ Naoto says. _“I’m going to look at the autopsies again but I don’t think I’ll be out for a long while. We could get a beer or something.”_

Yu chuckles. “Looking forward to it.”

_“Oh, Senpai! I also prepared your own copy of the latest victim’s autopsy. You can get it from Niijima when you get to the station.”_

Niijima?

“Niijima Sae?” He asks, jolting up when he says the name. Why on earth would a busy person make sure _he_ gets an autopsy? 

_“No, no.”_ Naoto chuckles. _“Niijima Makoto. Apparently she’s subject to Todai’s immersion program and was assigned to our station. I haven’t formally met her yet but Nishimiya’s been called by another officer so he handed the files over to her for a while. Apparently Nishimiya says that she’s Niijima’s sister? I still doubt it though. If it’s Todai’s immersion program then wouldn’t she have chosen the place where her sister works?”_

“Then I’ll make sure and tell you later then?” Yu says and with a small chuckle from Naoto as well as a reply of confirmation, she hangs up.

Niijima Makoto. She may be his ticket to Niijima Sae.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading this far and I gotta say I enjoy writing Yu's point of view for reasons unknown. Anyways, I always wanted to write something with Yusuke and Akira conversing but this time it's Yusuke trying to listen to Akira. Canonly it's Akira who listens and helps them but I do believe that his friends would be there for him in their own respective ways whenever they feel that Akira's having trouble with something because I still think Akira's the type to not voice out how he's actually doing.
> 
> When will Akechi come back? Soon :> Also, if you want to talk to me you can do so in twitter! (@rimacchiis) I post p5 art there as well!

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I wanted this chapter to open up first on how things are for Akira and Yu and what they've been doing after their respective stories in the game. I really wanted to show how Akira's doing right now in college as a normal student (who still stresses on studying because college). Also!! Ryuji as a physical therapy student! Kamoshida pretty much ruined his chances of getting a track scholarship since he now has his complications with his leg so I kind of think that Ryuji would want to help those who still have a chance in sports regardless of their injuries. The course is pretty challenging so I bet Ryuji wouldn't keep the high school mentality of not studying (I have some friends who are taking the same program and they've been miraculously turned into studious bugs, it has that kind of effect).
> 
> Yu on the other hand, I wanted to use his job to immediately start with the investigation with Naoto as police officer. For other p4 characters, I doubt all of them will appear (mentioned maybe but not directly appear) so I just tagged those who seem to have direct links to the story itself.
> 
> Akechi? For now, he's still considered missing and/or dead. I really don't want to rush anything but rest assured, he'll be back :)
> 
> Thank you so much for reading!


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